<s>
The	O
Visualization	B-Language
Toolkit	I-Language
(	O
VTK	B-Language
)	O
is	O
an	O
open-source	B-Application
software	I-Application
system	O
for	O
3D	O
computer	O
graphics	O
,	O
image	B-Algorithm
processing	I-Algorithm
and	O
scientific	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
is	O
distributed	O
under	O
the	O
OSI-approved	O
BSD	B-Operating_System
3-clause	I-Operating_System
License	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
consists	O
of	O
a	O
C++	B-Language
class	O
library	O
and	O
several	O
interpreted	O
interface	O
layers	O
including	O
Tcl/Tk	B-Application
,	O
Java	B-Language
,	O
and	O
Python	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
supports	O
a	O
various	O
visualization	O
algorithms	O
including	O
:	O
scalar	O
,	O
vector	O
,	O
tensor	B-Device
,	O
texture	O
,	O
and	O
volumetric	O
methods	O
;	O
and	O
advanced	O
modeling	O
techniques	O
such	O
as	O
:	O
implicit	O
modeling	O
,	O
polygon	O
reduction	O
,	O
mesh	O
smoothing	O
,	O
cutting	O
,	O
contouring	O
,	O
and	O
Delaunay	B-Algorithm
triangulation	I-Algorithm
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
has	O
an	O
information	B-Application
visualization	I-Application
framework	O
,	O
has	O
a	O
suite	O
of	O
3D	O
interaction	O
widgets	O
,	O
supports	O
parallel	O
processing	O
,	O
and	O
integrates	O
with	O
various	O
databases	O
and	O
GUI	O
toolkits	O
such	O
as	O
Qt	B-Language
and	O
Tk	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
is	O
cross-platform	B-Operating_System
and	O
runs	O
on	O
Linux	O
,	O
Windows	O
,	O
Mac	O
and	O
Unix	O
platforms	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
core	O
of	O
VTK	B-Language
is	O
implemented	O
as	O
a	O
C++	B-Language
toolkit	O
,	O
requiring	O
users	O
to	O
build	O
applications	O
by	O
combining	O
various	O
objects	O
into	O
an	O
application	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
system	O
also	O
supports	O
automated	O
wrapping	O
of	O
the	O
C++	B-Language
core	O
into	O
Python	B-Language
,	O
Java	B-Language
and	O
Tcl	O
,	O
so	O
that	O
VTK	B-Language
applications	O
may	O
also	O
be	O
written	O
using	O
these	O
programming	O
languages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
was	O
initially	O
created	O
in	O
1993	O
as	O
companion	O
software	O
to	O
the	O
book	O
The	O
Visualization	B-Language
Toolkit	I-Language
:	O
An	O
Object-Oriented	O
Approach	O
to	O
3D	O
Graphics	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
After	O
the	O
core	O
of	O
VTK	B-Language
was	O
written	O
,	O
users	O
and	O
developers	O
around	O
the	O
world	O
began	O
to	O
improve	O
and	O
apply	O
the	O
system	O
to	O
real-world	O
problems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
the	O
founding	O
of	O
Kitware	O
,	O
the	O
VTK	B-Language
community	O
grew	O
rapidly	O
,	O
and	O
toolkit	O
usage	O
expanded	O
into	O
academic	O
,	O
research	O
and	O
commercial	O
applications	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
number	O
of	O
major	O
companies	O
and	O
organizations	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Sandia	O
National	O
Laboratories	O
,	O
Livermore	O
National	O
Laboratory	O
,	O
Los	O
Alamos	O
National	O
Laboratory	O
funded	O
the	O
development	O
of	O
VTK	B-Language
and	O
even	O
developed	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
VTK	B-Language
modules	O
themselves	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
forms	O
the	O
core	O
of	O
the	O
3DSlicer	B-Application
biomedical	O
computing	O
application	O
,	O
and	O
numerous	O
research	O
papers	O
at	O
IEEE	O
Visualization	O
and	O
other	O
conferences	O
based	O
on	O
VTK	B-Language
have	O
appeared	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
has	O
been	O
used	O
on	O
a	O
large	O
1024-processor	O
computer	O
at	O
the	O
Los	O
Alamos	O
National	O
Laboratory	O
to	O
process	O
nearly	O
a	O
Petabyte	O
of	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Later	O
VTK	B-Language
was	O
expanded	O
to	O
support	O
the	O
ingestion	O
,	O
processing	O
and	O
display	O
of	O
informatics	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2013	O
,	O
a	O
survey	O
paper	O
on	O
visualization	O
for	O
radiotherapy	O
noticed	O
that	O
while	O
VTK	B-Language
is	O
a	O
powerful	O
and	O
widely	O
known	O
toolkit	O
,	O
it	O
lacked	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
important	O
features	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
multivolume	O
rendering	O
,	O
had	O
no	O
support	O
of	O
GPGPU	B-Architecture
libraries	O
such	O
as	O
CUDA	B-Architecture
,	O
no	O
support	O
of	O
out-of-core	O
rendering	O
of	O
huge	O
datasets	O
and	O
no	O
native	O
support	O
for	O
visualization	O
of	O
time-dependent	O
volumetric	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
However	O
,	O
since	O
2013	O
there	O
have	O
been	O
improvements	O
such	O
as	O
VTK-m	O
which	O
can	O
speed-up	O
and	O
parallelize	O
certain	O
computationally	O
intensive	O
tasks	O
using	O
accelerators	O
such	O
as	O
GPGPU	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
VTK	B-Language
is	O
also	O
used	O
in	O
the	O
visualization	O
pipeline	O
of	O
radiological	O
imaging	O
software	O
such	O
as	O
MEDInria	O
or	O
Starviewer	O
which	O
perform	O
multi-volume	O
(	O
also	O
called	O
fusion	O
)	O
and	O
time-dependent	O
(	O
also	O
called	O
phase	O
)	O
visualizations	O
.	O
</s>
