Patent ID: 7675517

Claim:
A method for rendering an image from volumetric data, comprising: accessing an image data grid; dividing the image data grid into one or more blocks; identifying one or more corner points of the one or more blocks; casting rays through voxel space of the volumetric data in the direction of the one or more corner points to determine one or more integrated values for the one or more corner points; comparing the one or more integrated values for each combination of said one or more corner points; calculating, utilizing a processor, a difference value (diff value ) as a function of the comparison; calculating an initial gradient (grad) as a function of a Reduced Path Octree structure during the casting of rays; calculating a maximum gradient (maxGrad) based on the initial gradient (grad); and determining an image processing operation as a function of the maximum gradient (maxGrad) and difference value (diff value ).