Historical MATLAB viewer prototype; the original viewer implementation dates from December 2020, with entry-point fixes in October 2026. The editing component is not implemented. The roadmap below records ideas, not a current development commitment. MATLAB runtime and cross-platform validation remain unverified.
For the available viewer demonstration, install MATLAB with Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox, then run one_demo.m from this repository directory. The historical MATLAB target is R2020b; window_builder_viewer.m calls the toolbox functions nanmax and nanmin when redrawing the viewer. The demo uses synthetic random data. The sz_3d_image_viewer wrapper creates a viewer and a placeholder control-panel window; its MATLAB runtime behavior remains unverified.
Entry-point regression tests in tests/test_viewer_entry_points.m cover wrapper handles and creation, reuse, and reopening of the placeholder windows. Run results = runtests('tests/test_viewer_entry_points.m'); assert(all([results.Passed])); from this repository directory in MATLAB. These tests have not been executed in the maintenance environment, where MATLAB is unavailable; they do not validate image processing or rendering.
I plan to build something similar to the spm 3D data viewer and grant it tools to edit the data through clicking (just like editing T1.vmr in brain voyager). Of course, there are already successful viewers like xjview and neuroelf; however, it will be easier for me to write/modify a new one than to learn the prior settings.
Also I would like to use hotkeys while viewing and editing data.
The ultimate version of this tool is expected to be like a brain-editing minecraft.
sz_3d_image_viewer: create a window, with views along each of the three dimensions of a 3D image (e.g. data from T1.vmr), another window (control panel) will also be created to contain some controls for viewing.
sz_3d_image_editor: planned editing component; this file is not present in the repository.
function_lib/: contains the third-party voxel.m helper. pathSetup.m adds this folder to the MATLAB path; pathRemove.m removes it.
voxel.m: a really helpful function to plot voxels in 3D. It even supports alpha value! Downloaded from https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/3280-voxel. Thanks to Suresh Joe the author!
It will be a long time before I hit the ultimate version of it, with only scattered weekends spent on it.
So, I will list some unimplemented updates here and if anyone is interested in building this tool with me, please feel free to join/fork it (I am not an expertise in Github, let me know if you need me to do something to let you join).
- add methods to control the image and crosshair properties, e.g. line width, color range, ...
- fine-tune the figure and subplots' size;
- add selecting and highlight function to select a cube of data;
- put selected region in a new subplot (or a large background plot), visualize it in a clever way (using openGL to plot the voxels);with the help of the voxel.m, I believe we are quite closer to the ultimate goal!
- add controls for visible data range;
- take care about the viewer and its data sharing with the control panel.
I often use 2014b, but its losing control of font size in the GUI is really annoying. So, for this tool, I will use matlab 2020b, although with my best effort to avoid some strange grammar of this higher version. However, it seems that neuroelf could not work properly under matlab 2020b, so combining this tool with the neuroelf may fail.
- add a cross hair to each subplot, marking the current position;
- add mouse-related interactivity;
- restructure the properties of the handle;
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y_Call_spm_orthviews_EdgeMode.m (not uploaded yet): a modified version of y_Call_spm_orthviews in DPABI to overlay edges of a brain onto another one. From this file, I might know how to use the viewer in spm. --> it is in y_spm_orthviews.m
y_spm_orthviews: a file from spm. It looks like a good viewer, but it has 3000+ lines... so I will skip reading it and start from "zero".
neuroelf: a very convenient toolbox for brain imaging data visualization. https://github.com/neuroelf/neuroelf-matlab