Patent ID: 7890155

Claim:
A method for visualizing one or more objects of interest within a volume of imaging data, the method steps comprising: receiving, by a processor, the volume of imaging data; and displaying the one or more objects of interest within the volume by adaptively changing by the processor an amount of information displayed from the volume based on a viewing direction of the volume, a position of the one or more objects of interest within the volume, and importance values of materials within the volume, wherein the displaying comprises: selecting a viewing angle that is relative to the viewing direction; determining regions of the volume that fall within the viewing angle by determining a first region having a first angle away from the viewing direction, the first region having a bottom that is a first distance away from the object of interest and determining a second region having a second angle away from the viewing direction, the second region having a bottom that is a second distance away from the object of interest, wherein the first angle is less than the second angle and the first distance is less than the second distance; determining occlusion values for each point of the regions based on the degree that each point occludes the object of interest; and modifying an opacity value for each point based on the occlusion value of the point and the importance material that the point corresponds to.