Patent ID: 7376279

Claim:
A system for transmitting three dimensional (x, y, z axis) digital source images over a communication network, comprising: a storage device for storing three dimensional digital source images; a client computer coupled to the communication network, said client computer operative to generate and transmit to a server computer a request for interaction with the three dimensional source image stored on said image storage device, said request for interaction comprising an ordered request list specifying data blocks for progressive rendering of a given region of interest (ROI) within said three dimensional source image; and said server computer coupled to the communication network and said image storage device, the server computer comprising means for preprocessing said three dimensional source image through a three dimensional wavelet transform wherein resultant three dimensional subband coefficient data comprises interslice correlation information, receiving said ordered request list from the client computer and progressively transmitting to said client computer three dimensional subband coefficient data blocks corresponding to said given region of interest in accordance with said ordered request list.