Master's thesis: Real-Time Simulation of 3D OCT Images

Abstract

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is widely used in diagnosis for ophthalmology and is also gaining popularity in interventional settings. OCT generates images in an image formation process similar to ultrasound imaging: Coherent light waves are emitted into the tissue and this light signal is partially reflected at discontinuities of optical density. The reflected light waves are then used to reconstruct a depth slice of the tissue. The ability to simulate such a modality in real time has many potential applications: For example, it can greatly help to evaluate image processing algorithms where ground truth is not easily obtainable. It is also a crucial part of a fully virtual simulation environment for ophthalmic interventions, which can be used for training as well as prototyping of visualization concepts. As a first step, existing simulation algorithms shall be reviewed and evaluated in terms of computational efficiency when adapted to 3D. A new or adapted algorithm shall be proposed to support simulation of OCT images from a volumetric model of the eye. This should consider efficient implementation on the GPU and consider realistic simulation of the modality's artifacts, such as speckle noise, reflections and shadowing.

Tasks

• Review of existing 2D simulation approaches
• Generation of a 3D model of a human eye that can be used for simulation
• Propose a an algorithm for real-time OCT simulation
• Implementation using a GPGPU library and comparison to real scanner results

Prerequisites

• Knowledge of C++ and GPU Programming
• Basics in physics
• Background of CAMP I/II Lectures are helpful

Contact

Jakob Weiss