20031117: IDV data formats and features

>From: Bernard Mendiburu <address@hidden>
>Organization: UCLA
>Keywords: 200311172200.hAHM0mOb011273 IDV features

Hi Bernard-

>I'm curently checking for datas outsending rules in my lab.
>It's medical datas, i want to make sure there's no NDA-like clauses.
>I'll certanely get an OK, but i'd rather wait for it.

Okay.  

>The IDV behavior is this :
>The file opening process is endless.
>After a (long) while, i got a few lines on the bottom slice, and no
>isosurfaces.

Hmm, this is strange.

>BTW, i got a few other questions :
>
>*1 - about the vis5d V5D file format*
>The vis5d file spects allows only 100 slices (MAXLEVELS)
>When i try to tricks this in the v5d.h, it seems to works.
>But IDV refuses to open the file, claiming it's not a valid v5d file.
>
>Is there another file format we should use ?

Our preferred format is netCDF, but we should be able to get
the Vis5D format to work.   Can you open these files in the
SpreadSheet?

>*2 - About files format handled by IDV*
>How complex would it be to enable IDV to open DICOM files?
>It's a medical file format handled by visAD

If VisAD handles it, we should be able to open it in the IDV
at least in the omni control.

>*3 - about IDV visualisation features -> Volume Rendering*
>Is it possible to make some volume rendering ?
>Would it be possible to integrate volrend routines ?
>http://www.j3d.org/tutorials/quick_fix/volume.html

VisAD supports volume rendering, so we could probably 
do that in the IDV. It may be a resource hog.

>*4 - about IDV visualisation features -> Stereo*
>I'd like to use IVD with stereoscopic displays.
>I've found dead links to the Stereo_enabled SpreadSheet.
>Is it available anywhere ?
>I'm curently trying to unpack visad_examples.jar without success.
>Will gi futher soon..

The latest version of the IDV support stereo.  You should just
be able to display it on a stereo system and put it into perspective
mode.  I was testing the IDV on a GeoWall which is a stereo display
system.  

>*5 - about IDV scripting and/or viewpoint control*     
>I'm making 3D views of our brain datas
>Here're some of the pictures and movies made with IDV :
>http://www.loni.ucla.edu/~bmendibu/pictures.htm
>I'd like to make Vertical-axis (say Z) rotation of the model for second-eye
>rendering.
>The viewport control allows only X and Y rotations.
>Is there any trick to handle this, but the Shift-Arrows ?

Are you saying that you would like some other UI control to simulate
the Shift-left/right arrow functions?  That shouldn't be hard to
do, but if you had a suggestion for what the widget would look like,
let us know.

>Is there any Jython sample script who generated a series of jgp pictures i
>could use as a start point ?

Not really.  I'll have to think about this and get back to you.
Scripting is on our list of things to do.

>*About all thoses questions*
>We've got some JAVA programmers here who could handle that, but I wonder if
>you've any clue on the complexity of thoses tasks.
>I've subscribed to the idv users and devlopers mailists, and is curently
>searching them.

There has not been much traffic on those lists since the IDV is really
only 6 months old (officially).  Except for the last one, I don't
think the others are that hard.

>Thanks for your help.

Thanks for your unique use of the IDV!

Don Murray
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