Patent ID: 7692648

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of volume rendering a digitized image, comprising the steps of: providing a pair of adjacent 2-dimensional images of texture data; identifying a plurality of polygons extending in slabs between said adjacent two dimensional textures; finding a first and last visible voxel for data rows and data columns of each said polygon, wherein a minimum and maximum bound of each data row and for each data column are determined; marking those data rows and data columns as invisible that do not contain any visible voxels; and rendering said polygons along a direction orthogonal to a dominant viewing direction, wherein rendering of texture data is restricted by the outer bounds of said polygons that are trimmed to the minimum and maximum bounds of two neighboring data rows or data columns, and wherein those data rows and data columns marked as invisible are skipped, wherein said steps of identifying a plurality of polygons, finding a first and last visible voxel, marking data rows and data columns, and rendering said polygons, are performed by a graphics processing unit.