Patent ID: 8701167

Claim:
A method for viewing at a client device a series of three-dimensional virtual views over Internet of a volume visualization dataset contained on at least one centralized database comprising: providing at least one central data storage medium containing the volume visualization dataset; providing at least one server in communication with the at least one centralized database and capable of processing the volume visualization dataset to create virtual views based on client request; providing a client device linked to the at least one server and central storage medium over the Internet, the client device having local data storage medium for storing frames of views of the volume visualization dataset; requesting at the client device a series of three-dimensional virtual views of at least a portion of the volume visualization dataset, the series of views comprising a plurality of separate view frames; determining if any frame of the requested views of the volume visualization dataset is stored on the local data storage medium; sending from the client device to the server a request for any frame of the requested views not stored on the local data storage medium; at the server, creating the requested frames of the requested views from the volume visualization dataset in the central storage medium; transmitting the created frames of the requested views from the server to the client device; and displaying the requested series of three-dimensional virtual views of the volume visualization dataset at the client device by sequentially displaying frames transmitted from the server along with any frames of the requested series of views stored on the local data storage medium.