Patent ID: 7616199

Claim:
A computer implemented method for volume rendering, the method performed by said computer comprising the steps of: providing a digitized 3-dimensional image comprising a plurality of 2-dimensional slices comprising a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points on a 2-dimensional grid; interleaving said slices wherein a predetermined number of slices are represented within 2-dimensional textures comprising slabs, each said slab comprising a plurality of polygons, wherein each slab comprises 4 slices, wherein interleaving said slices comprises ordering points v ijk as . . . v i,j,k , v i,j,k+1 , v i,j,k+2 , v i,j,k+3 , v i,j+1,k , v i,j+1,k+1 , v i,j+1,k+2 , v i,j+1,k+3 , v i,j+2,k , v i,j+2,k+1 , v i,j+2,k+2 , v i,j+2,k+3 , v i,j+3,k , v i,j+3,k+1 , v i,j+3,k+2 , v i,j+3,k+3 , . . . , wherein i is a row index, j is a column index, and k is a slice index; generating weighting functions for each slice of a polygon of a slab; and using said weighting functions to compute a trilinearly interpolated sample from multiple bilinearly interpolated samples value for each slice of said polygon, wherein said interpolator function is generated by summing a primary function and a secondary function, wherein said primary function is a line segment whose range is clamped to the range [0,1], and said secondary function is a line segment whose range is clamped to the range [−1,0], wherein said volume rendering is performed by a graphical processing unit.