Date: 10-13-05 Week 1
Today was the first day of Lab. I started by researching Matlab and looking into the different 3-D functions it has. I will be given Matlab code that will take the MRI scans and extract a 3-D model of the cartilage. The cartilage will them be separated into the two menisci. From here, I will have to add light and manipulate viewing angles to simulate an arthroscopic surgery. The first thing I am going to try to do is to get an idea of how to illuminate an object with light from Matlab. To do this, I will create a matrix that is pic(x,y,z). Every [M x N] matrix will have a circle of increasing radius. Matlab will be used to smooth and create a 3-D object from this matrix.
Date: 10-20-05 Week 2
I have created a Matlab m-file that will generate the [M x N x O] matrix pic(x,y,z). I am not sure how to make this display as a 3-D object. I am found how to display one [M x N] slice of it. Dr. Stewart has given me some code to look at that does this. I will look at it and try to understand how it works so I can do the same to my matrix of pixel data. The day was spent researching different Matlab functions.
Date: 10-27-05 Week 3
Finally, pic(x,y,z) is displayed as a 3-D object. Now I am looking at all the different light functions. I found a visualizing MRI data example and Matlab and looked at this. It helped me understand how all the Matlab code actually worked.
Date: 11-03-05 Week 4
The day was spent looking at how to put light on an object and move the light around. There are many things in this that can be changed to make the light do different things.
Date: 11-10-05 Week 5
The light properties have been tested on the sphere that was created. The properties are used to black out the background except for the part of the sphere the light is on. The size lit part of the sphere can also be changed. The method used to calculate the effect of the light on the faces of the object. This is important since we will be looking at curved surfaces. Phong seems to be the best algorithm.
Date: 11-17-05 Week 6
View control in Matlab was investigated today. The camposition and camtarget functions in Matlab used. A pyramid with different colors on each side was created in Matlab, so the functions could be tested and understood. Now since the view is understood, the light and view control can be used on the cartilage model to try to create a arthroscopic surgery view.
Date: 12-01-05 thru 12-24-05 Week 7& 8
Worked with Matlab rendering capabilities. Tested light with the different types of rendering.
Date: 01-26-06 thru 01-31-06 Week 10&11
Found how to add extra points into a matrix using interp3. Testing light with different amounts of points and points added on cubic, spline or linear.
Date: 02-07-06 thru 02-09-06 Week 12
Worked with light and view.
Date: 02-16-06 thru 02-21-06 Week 13&14
Split the cartilage model and changed the color of the cartilage. Smoothed data and reduced surfaces to obtain an arthroscopic surgery view.
Date: 02-22-06 thru 02-23-06 Week 15
Smoothing has smoothed out the tear. I must now deal with this and view the torn cartilage with the arthroscopic surgery view. I will manually pick out the data points where the tear is. Then I will separate this section and smooth is separately from the rest of the model. Next, replace the data in the model by the separately smoothed data. Smooth the overall picture. Look at the model with light. This worked. We can look at the tear. Doing the smoothing separately allowed us to make the data less rippled while preserving the tear.
Date: 03-02-06 Week 16
I moved the light and view to get the best look at the cartilage tear.
Date: 03-09-06 Week 17
I am making the camera move around the tear to get different views of the model with the light kept at the same location. This is like a little video of an arthroscopic surgery.
Date: 03-23-06 thru 03-28-06 Week 18
I am learning how to use the haptic device. This isn't that easy. I don't think I will have enough time to implement the arthroscopic view with the haptic device.
Date: 04-04-06 thru 04-06-06 Week 19
The best way to get the arthroscopic view is to put light and the correct camera view on the model in the haptic feedback system. This uses C code and OpenGL. The commands for light and camera are in OpenGL. I have found the commands I need. I am now familiarizing myself with the haptic feedback system. The center of the screen for the haptic is (0,0,0). This is very different from Matlab. Matlab has the top right corner as (1,1). I am just trying to familiarize myself with everything.
Date: 04-11-06 thru 04-13-06 Week 20
I am going to create a cube to determine and understand how to move the view around. This worked.
Date: 10-14-06 thru 05-08-06 End of Project
I will do preliminary work in C++ and OpenGl for the haptic feedback system. OpenGl doens't support Phong lighting, so Gourand lighting must be used. I have imported my smoothed model from Matlab into the haptic device. When I look at the cartilage, I can't see the tear. I am not sure why there is this change from Matlab to the C++. I am trying to change the light and view to find the tear. I haven't been able to do this. I am not sure what is wrong. This would be a time consuming problem, so I am going to leave this for a future project.
Now I am working on my final paper and presentation. The final presentation was given on May 2 at 10:00 AM.
The final paper is completed. I am done. :)