Patent ID: 7961187

Claim:
A method for flexible occlusion rendering comprising: at a computing platform including a processor: receiving a first set of three dimensional image data including image data for a surface of interest and image data for a region occluding the surface of interest from a desired viewpoint; casting a plurality of rays from the viewpoint to the surface of interest; along each ray, identifying a local maximum in voxel intensity, and, rendering voxels on a near side of the local maximum in voxel intensity to be visible and rendering voxels on a far side of the local maximum in voxel intensity to be at least partially transparent, wherein the voxels rendered as visible define the surface of interest and the voxels rendered to be at least partially transparent define the region occluding the surface of interest; and displaying the voxels rendered along each ray to a user so that the user can view the surface of interest through the occluding region.