We present a method that performs a rigid 2D/3D image registration efficiently on the Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). As
one main contribution of this paper, we propose an efficient method for generating realistic DRRs that are visually similar
to x-ray images. Therefore, we model some of the electronic post-processes of current x-ray C-arm-systems. As another main
contribution, the GPU is used to compute eight intensity-based similarity measures between the DRR and the x-ray image in
parallel. A combination of these eight similarity measures is used as a new similarity measure for the optimization. We evaluated
the performance and the precision of our 2D/3D image registration algorithm using two phantom models. Compared to a CPU +
GPU algorithm, which calculates the similarity measures on the CPU, our GPU algorithm is between three and six times faster.
In contrast to single similarity measures, our new similarity measure achieved precise and robust registration results for
both phantom models.
The text was submitted by the authors in English.
Alexander Kubias. Born 1982. Obtained his diploma (Dipl.-Inf.) degree in 2006 from the University of Koblenz-Landau. Currently research assistant
for semantic web applications at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Koblenz, Germany. Research interests: image processing
and semantic web. Author and coauthor of several conference/workshop articles about medical image registration and semantic
web query languages.
Frank Deinzer. Born 1972. Obtained his diploma (Dipl.-Inf.) degree in 1998 and his PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in computer science in 2005 from the University
of Erlangen. Currently project lead for medical image fusion at Siemens AG, Medical Solutions, Forchheim, Germany. Research
interests: statistical fusion of sensor data in the field of medical image processing. Author and coauthor of more than 30
conference/journal articles and books. His work on sensor fusion for active object recognition was awarded the DAGM best paper
award in 2001. He is a member of Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI, German society for computer science).
Tobias Feldmann. Born 1976. Obtained his diploma (Dipl.-Inf.) degree in 2006 from the University of Koblenz-Landau. He was a member of the
research group “Active Vision” at the University of Koblenz-Landau until 2007 and is currently a researcher at the University
of Karlsruhe, “Institute for Algorithms and Cognitive Systems,” Group on Human Motion Analysis. Research interests: Image
Registration, Image-based 3D Reconstruction and Pose Tracking. Author and coauthor of 6 publications. He is a member of GI
(German society for computer science) and DAGM (German Society for Pattern Recognition).
Dietrich Paulus. Obtained a Bachelor degree in Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, followed
by a diploma (Dipl.-Inf.) in Computer Science and a PhD (Dr.-Ing.) from Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg,
Germany. He worked as a senior researcher at the chair for pattern recognition (Prof. Dr. H. Niemann) at Erlangen University
from 1991–2002. Since 2001 he is at the institute for computational visualistics at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany,
where he became a full professor in 2002. He is currently the dean of the department of computer science at the University
of Koblenz-Landau. His primary research interests are active computer vision, object recognition, color image processing,
medical image processing, and software engineering for computer vision. He has published over 150 papers on these topics,
and he is the author of three textbooks. He is member of Gesellschaft für Informatik (GI) and IEEE.
Bernd Schreiber. Born in 1965. Physics Diploma in 1990 by the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, PhD in Physics in 1993 by the University of
Erlangen-Nürnberg (Area of research: Theoretical High Energy Physics). Postgraduate Student from 1993 to 1995 at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. From 1995 to 2004 employee at the Philips Research Laboratories in Hamburg, Germany
(main areas of research: radiation therapy, explosives and narcotics detection in checked luggage by coherent x-ray scatter
methods, landmine detection by Compton scatter methods). Since 2004 with Siemens Medical Solutions in Forchheim, Germany:
3D Imaging with open C-arm x-ray systems. Author and coauthor of more than 20 publications.
Thomas Brunner. Born 1960. Obtained his diploma (Dipl.-Phys.) in 1985 and his PhD (Dr. rer. nat., Theoretical Solid State Physics) in 1990
from the University of Munich (Technische Universität München). Currently Senior Expert for Engineering at Siemens AG, Medical
Solutions, Forchheim, Germany. Research interests: C-arm Computed Tomography. Author and coauthor of 27 articles.