XRayViewer - A C++ Unreal Engine 5 Wrapper for gVirtualXRay
Written by: Lewis Dixon
Published on: Summary
Lab-CT is a rapidly developing area of research. As CT scanners have become more compact and cheaper, they are more accessible to researchers. This however introduces the problem of training users to correctly operate lab-CT scanners. It is often difficult or not practical to allow researchers time to train thoroughly on equipment before they use it, as this takes up precious time allocated to the researchers. With this in mind, XRayViewer aims to be a generic training tool for researchers to use to gain valuable experience with using a lab-CT scanner before using one in the real world. Unreal Engine 5 is used to create a realistic looking environment and the gVirtualXRay library is used to provide all the X-Ray rendering features. The Use of a game engine allows for use of advanced rendering technologies and provides a feature set that the simulator can be built on top of without having to consider this in development. The application prototype was given to a number of experts in the field of lab-CT in order to evaluate its validity as a training tool, with the general conclusion that is does have potential to be very useful, even in its prototype state, but has a number of valuable enhancements that should be added in a future version. Participants of the survey said they liked how it feels like using a real scanner and how everything is well integrated, but that more processing and beam options, such as exposure time and generating sinograms should be added. A number of areas for future work were identified.The application could be adapted to simulate specific CT-scanners, making it a valuable tool for manufacturers. It could also have many of the suggestions from the survey implemented to make it a more complete training tool with the potential for aiding in research.
Dissertation
Dixon, L. (2022). XRayViewer - A C++ Unreal Engine 5 Wrapper for gVirtualXRay (Master’s thesis). Bangor University, Bangor, UK.
Citation
@mastersthesis{Dixon2022,
author = {Lewis Dixon},
title = {{XRayViewer - A C++ Unreal Engine 5 Wrapper for gVirtualXRay}},
school = "Bangor University",
year = 2022
}