Patent ID: 7034822

Claim:
A method for generating output images, comprising: acquiring a sequence of input images of an object; generating, while the sequence of input images is acquired, a set of point samples representing the object from the sequence of input images, in which each point sample has 3D coordinates and intensity information; in which the set of point samples is arranged in a hierarchy tree such that each point sample is associated with a leaf node in the hierarchy tree, and branch nodes are associated with average values of the information in lower nodes in the hierarchy tree, and in which a distance between parent and child nodes in the hierarchy tree is smaller than any distance between nodes at a same level as the parent node; rendering, while the sequence of input images is acquired, the set of point samples as a sequence of output images of the object; modifying the set of point samples according the sequence of input images, and repeating the rendering and modifying as long as the sequence of input images is acquired.