Method and apparatus for rendering material properties

A system for rendering one or more material properties of a surface of an object, the system comprising:

• a scanner configured to acquire a medical dataset comprising a three-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object, the object having a surface;
• a renderer configured to:
• determine, based on the medical dataset, a surface structure corresponding to the surface of the object;
• derive, based on the determined surface structure, a plurality of rendering locations;
• and
• render, from the medical dataset, one or more material properties of the surface of the object, at each of the plurality of rendering locations;
• and
• a computer storage for storing the one or more material properties per rendering location.

A computer program comprising instructions which when executed by a computer causes the computer to render one or more material properties of a surface of an object, the instructions comprising:

• acquiring a medical dataset comprising a three-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object, the object having a surface;
• determining, based on the medical dataset, a surface structure corresponding to the surface of the object;
• deriving, based on the determined surface structure, a plurality of rendering locations;
• rendering, by a physically-based volumetric renderer and from the medical dataset, one or more material properties of the surface of the object, at each of the plurality of rendering locations;
• and
• storing the one or more material properties per rendering location.