Towards run time visualization in cardiac modeling

Abstract

The output data generated in whole heart simulations are usually single or multiple parameters at each point in the simulation space. Visualizing data sets of gigabyte size puts great stress on the hardware and can be slow and tedious. Creating animated movies to analyze the excitation propagation can take hours on standard systems. We present two parallel visualization techniques to improve rendering of large datasets from cardiac simulations. The Scalable Parallel Visualization Networking (SPVN) toolkit provides the ability to assist in optimizing the utility and functionality of the aggregate resources in visualization clusters. Run time visualization offers the opportunity to visualize the results of cardiac simulations on the fly on High Performance Computers. Parallel visualization techniques enable fast manipulation of high resolution whole heart data sets and simulation results. The SPVN system has the potential to be linked with the simulation environment similar to the run time visualization described. Future efforts will focus on creating a simulation and visualization environment with appropriate characteristics for clinical setting. Specifically, speed, intuitive control and the ability to render diverse signals will likely be critical to drive adoption in the clinical setting.