🗡️3D Slicer

Overview

For medical professionals looking for ways to elevate the visual communication and comprehension of their work in 3D, Kitware, Inc. and Looking Glass Factory have integrated the immersive holographic displays with 3D Slicer, an open-source, multi-platform medical imaging application.

To learn more about 3D Slicer, visit slicer.org.

Getting Started

If this is the first time setting up a Looking Glass, visit the Getting Started page for your display.

This integration requires Looking Glass Bridge v1.1.3 or later. Use this diagnostic tool to check which version you have installed if unsure.

Looking Glass support has been added to preview builds of 3D Slicer since Oct 15, 2020. To download select the Preview Release version from the download page:

Download 3D Slicer

Kitware has prepared an easy-to-follow tutorial for setting up 3D Slicer in the Looking Glass for the first time:

Loading Example Data

Download and unzip the above datasets to view. To load into the Looking Glass:

First, in 3D Slicer search for the "Sample Data" module by clicking on the magnifying glass in the Modules panel.

Next, select any sample data set you'd like. Data prepended with CT tends to look best, tends to have better scanning resolution that MR or other formats.

Once loaded, switch to the Volume Rendering module (available in the pulldown).

Inside the Volume Rendering module, with your dataset selected in the "Volume" field, (1) select the eye tool. Then (2) change to a preset relevant to your data. Lastly, (3) adjust the shift so you can see the most of the model. NOTE Rendering should stay on GPU (not CPU) rendering.

Quick Reference

This reference covers all you need to navigate and control functionality specific to the Looking Glass.

For a comprehensive reference on all the features 3D Slicer has to offer, please visit the documentation on their site.

Mouse Controls

Place your mouse in the 3D view of the 2D interface to execute the following interactions:

• Left click and drag - rotate the camera around the data

• Scroll wheel click and drag - pan the scene

• Right click and drag / Scroll wheel - scale the scene larger and smaller

Looking Glass Module Controls

Connect to hardware

Toggles whether or not connected to hardware.

Enable rendering

Toggles whether or not rendering is enabled

Rendering

Changes the refresh settings of the rendered Looking Glass 3D scene.

• OnlyWhenRequested - only refreshes after user presses "Set looking glass view to match reference view."

• OnlyStillRenders - render view refreshes when user pauses

• Always - render view refreshes in realtime

Update rate

Rate at which 3D Slicer attempts to update the image on the Looking Glass. Higher rates are achieved by reducing render fidelity.

Set looking glass view to match reference view.

Renders the 3D view in the Looking Glass when OnlyWhenRequested is selected from the "Rendering" pulldown above.

Reference View

Selects which 3D viewport should render on the Looking Glass.

Focal Plane

Pushes / pulls the focal plane forward or back.

Uses clipping limits

Toggles whether clipping limits are enabled

Near Clipping Limit

Adjusts the near clipping plane of the rendered scene.

Far Clipping Limit

Adjusts the far clipping plane of the rendered scene.

Support

For further 3D Slicer support, visit the 3D Slicer Forum.

Show us your work!

We are deeply excited about supporting the medical visualization community in viewing their data in 3D on our displays. Please share video of the work that you do, either by tweeting @LKGGlass or emailing us at [email protected]!