Paper in press, software coming soon ...
Citation: Qianqian Fang, "Mesh-based Monte Carlo Method Using Fast Ray-Tracing in Plücker Coordinates," Biomedical Optics Express (in press)
Title
Mesh-based Monte Carlo Method Using Fast Ray-Tracing in Plücker Coordinates
Abstract
We describe a fast mesh-based Monte Carlo (MMCM) photon migration
algorithm for static and time-resolved imaging in 3D complex media. Compared with
previous works using voxel-based media discretization, a mesh-based approach can be
more accurate in modeling targets with curved boundaries or locally refined structures.
We implement an efficient ray-tracing technique using Plücker Coordinates. The
Barycentric coordinates computed from Plücker-formed ray-tracing enables us to use
linear Lagrange basis functions to model both media properties and fluence distribution,
leading to further improvement in accuracy. The Plücker-coordinate ray-polygon
intersection test can be extended to hexahedral or high-order elements. Excellent
agreement is found when comparing MMCM with the analytical diffusion model and 3D
voxel-based Monte Carlo code in both homogeneous and heterogeneous cases. Realistic
time-resolved imaging results are observed for a complex human brain anatomy using
MMCM. We also include multi-threading support in the software and will port it to a
graphics processing unit platform in the near future.