Patent ID: 7301538
Filing Date: 2007-11-27
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
1. An adaptive direct volume rendering system, comprising: one or more central processing units for executing programs; a user interface for receiving a plurality of volume rendering parameters; and an adaptive volume rendering engine module executable by the one or more central processing units, the module comprising: instructions for fragmenting a sampled 3-D dataset of a scalar field into a plurality of sub-volumes of different sizes, each sub-volume associated with a set of data value parameters characterizing the data value distribution of the scalar field within the sub-volume; instructions for defining an opacity transfer function that is dependent upon data values of the scalar field and an illumination model; instructions for selectively casting a plurality of rays from a 2-D image plane towards the sampled dataset, each ray having an initial ray energy and a cross-section; for each ray launched from a selected location on the 2-D image plane, wherein the instructions for selectively casting a plurality of rays from a 2-D image plane include subdividing the 2-D image plane into a plurality of sub-planes; for each of the plurality of sub-planes,