VolumeRendering

Gradient Calculation

← Lighting | ● | Gradient-Magnitude (GM) →

The gradient vector is computed on a discrete grid by finite differences method.

  • Gradient vector is written as so called Nabla Operator $\nabla$
  • Gradient = partial derivatives of the continuous scalar function $f(x,y,z)$
$ \nabla f = (\frac{df}{dx}, \frac{df}{dy}, \frac{df}{dz})^T $
  • Discrete derivatives via finite differences method
    • forward differences method
      • $ \frac{df(x)}{ds} \approx \frac{f(x+\Delta s)-f(x)}{\Delta s} $
    • backward differences method
      • $ \frac{df(x)}{ds} \approx \frac{f(x)-f(x-\Delta s)}{\Delta s} $
    • central differences methods has better smoothness
      • $ \frac{df(x)}{ds} \approx \frac{f(x+\Delta s)-f(x-\Delta s)}{2\Delta s} $

Normal $ \vec{n} = \nabla f = (\frac{f(x+\Delta s,y,z)-f(x-\Delta s,y,z)}{2\Delta s}, \frac{f(x,y+\Delta s,z)-f(x,y-\Delta s,z)}{2\Delta s}, \frac{f(x,y,z+\Delta s)-f(x,y,z-\Delta s)}{2\Delta s})^T $

  • Discrete derivation via central differences on the voxel grid
    • $ \frac{df(x)}{ds} \approx \frac{f(i+1)-f(i-1)}{2} $
    • At the grid boundaries forward resp. backward differences.
  • Hint: even better smoothness than $\nabla$ via central differences: Sobel Operator!


← Lighting | ● | Gradient-Magnitude (GM) →

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