Computational observers and visualization methods for stereoscopic medical imaging

As stereoscopic display devices become common, their image quality assessment evaluation becomes increasingly important. Most studies conducted on 3D displays are based on psychophysics experiments with humans rating their experience based on detection tasks. The physical measurements do not map to effects on signal detection performance. Additionally, human observer study results are often subjective and difficult to generalize. We designed a computational stereoscopic observer approach inspired by the mechanisms of stereopsis in human vision for task-based image assessment that makes binary decisions based on a set of image pairs. The stereo-observer is constrained to a left and a right image generated using a visualization operator to render voxel datasets. We analyze white noise and lumpy backgrounds using volume rendering techniques. Our simulation framework generalizes many different types of model observers including existing 2D and 3D observers as well as providing flexibility to formulate a stereo model observer approach following the principles of stereoscopic viewing. This methodology has the potential to replace human observer studies when exploring issues with stereo display devices to be used in medical imaging. We show results quantifying the changes in performance when varying stereo angle as measured by an ideal linear stereoscopic observer. Our findings indicate that there is an increase in performance of about 13-18% for white noise and 20-46% for lumpy backgrounds, where the stereo angle is varied from 0 to 30. The applicability of this observer extends to stereoscopic displays used for in the areas of medical and entertainment imaging applications.