Method and apparatus for rendering of geometric volumes
First Claim
1. A method for rendering volume objects on a computer graphics display, said method comprising the steps of:
- storing volume data representative of at least a portion of a volume object in memory, said volume object being represented in a (u,v,w) volume space;
generating at least one geometric primitive to correspond to the volume object, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented as a plurality of geometry coordinates including a plurality of boundary coordinates, said plurality of boundary coordinates defining the corresponding geometric primitive, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented within an {x,y,z} coordinate space having a reference frame, said geometry coordinates being defined as a function of the reference frame, said geometry coordinates representing a plurality of corresponding displaying pixels on a computer graphics display;
aligning the volume object to the corresponding geometric primitive;
generating a mapping function which maps said volume data to said geometry coordinates of said corresponding geometric primitive using the boundary coordinates;
performing geometric operations on the corresponding geometric primitive the volume object is mapped to, thereby resulting in a modified geometric primitive; and
displaying the volume data according to the geometry coordinates of the modified geometric primitive using the mapping function determined, whereby the volume object displayed is modified according to the geometric operations performed on the corresponding geometric primitive.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided to directly render volumes from volume data whereby the resolution of the volume is not lost and the volume data is completely interactive with geometric data. The volume or portion of the volume to be rendered is aligned to a geometric primitive defined by a reference frame and a mapping function is generated relating the geometric primitive to the volume or volume portion. The mapping function relates each voxel in volume space to an element or point of the primitive. Thus, the volume is displayed as a function of the geometric primitive the volume or volume portion is mapping to. In the preferred embodiment the volume or portion of volume to be rendered is bound by one or more geometric primitives and a mapping is generated relating the geometric primitive, such as a 3-D polgon, to the volume. Thereafter, any geometric operation performed on the volume is accomplished by performing the operation on the geometric primitive and using the mapping function to translate the volume into geometry space whereby the volume data is displayed. By defining the volume as a function of geometric primitives such as a polygon, geometric operations, such as clipping or rotating, may be performed easily on the primitive and the data is used to look up through the mapping function to determine the corresponding volume data to be displayed.
59 Citations
48 Claims
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1. A method for rendering volume objects on a computer graphics display, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing volume data representative of at least a portion of a volume object in memory, said volume object being represented in a (u,v,w) volume space; generating at least one geometric primitive to correspond to the volume object, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented as a plurality of geometry coordinates including a plurality of boundary coordinates, said plurality of boundary coordinates defining the corresponding geometric primitive, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented within an {x,y,z} coordinate space having a reference frame, said geometry coordinates being defined as a function of the reference frame, said geometry coordinates representing a plurality of corresponding displaying pixels on a computer graphics display; aligning the volume object to the corresponding geometric primitive; generating a mapping function which maps said volume data to said geometry coordinates of said corresponding geometric primitive using the boundary coordinates; performing geometric operations on the corresponding geometric primitive the volume object is mapped to, thereby resulting in a modified geometric primitive; and displaying the volume data according to the geometry coordinates of the modified geometric primitive using the mapping function determined, whereby the volume object displayed is modified according to the geometric operations performed on the corresponding geometric primitive. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for rendering volume objects on a computer graphics display wherein the volume object is displayed in screen space, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing in memory volume data representative of at least a portion of the volume object, said volume object being represented in a (u,v,w) volume space; generating at least one geometric primitive corresponding to the volume object which bounds the volume object in three dimensions, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented as a plurality of geometry coordinates including a plurality of boundary coordinates, said plurality of boundary coordinates defining the corresponding geometric primitive, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented in an {x,y,z} geometry space, said geometry space having a reference frame, said geometry coordinates being defined as a function of the reference frame, said geometry coordinates representing a plurality of corresponding displaying pixels in the screen space of the computer graphics display; generating a mapping function which maps said volume data to one of said geometry coordinates of said corresponding geometric primitive which bounds the volume object using the boundary coordinates; performing geometric operations on the corresponding geometric primitive the volume object is mapped to, thereby resulting in a modified geometric primitive; and displaying the volume data according to the geometry coordinates of the modified geometric primitive using the mapping function determined, whereby the volume object displayed is modified according to the geometric operations performed on the corresponding geometric primitive. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. An apparatus for rendering volume objects on a computer graphics display, said apparatus comprising:
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means for storing volume data representative of at least a portion of a volume object in memory, said volume object being represented in a (u,v,w) volume space; means for generating at least one geometric primitive to correspond to the volume object, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented as a plurality of geometry coordinates including a plurality of boundary coordinates, said plurality of boundary coordinates defining the corresponding geometric primitive, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented in an {x,y,z} geometry coordinate space having a reference frame, said geometry coordinates being defined as a function of the reference frame, said geometry coordinates representing a plurality of pixels on a computer graphics display; means for aligning the volume object to the corresponding geometric primitive; means for generating a mapping function which maps said volume data to said geometry coordinates of said corresponding geometric primitive using the boundary coordinates; means for performing geometric operations on the corresponding geometric primitive the volume object is mapped to thereby resulting in a modified geometric primitive; and means for displaying the volume data according to the geometry coordinates of the modified geometric primitive using the mapping function determined whereby the volume object displayed is modified according to the geometric operations performed on the corresponding geometric primitive. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. An apparatus for rendering volume objects on a computer graphics display, said apparatus comprising:
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means for storing in memory volume data representative of at least a portion of a volume object, said volume object represented in a (u,v,w) volume space; means for generating at least one geometric primitive to correspond to the volume object which bounds the volume object in three dimensions, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented as a plurality of geometry coordinates including a plurality of boundary coordinates, said plurality of boundary coordinates defining the corresponding geometric primitive, said corresponding geometric primitive being represented in an {x,y,z} geometry space, said geometry space having a reference frame, said corresponding geometric primitive being defined as a function of the reference frame, said geometry coordinates representing a plurality of corresponding displaying pixels in the screen space of the computer graphics display; means for generating a mapping function which maps said volume data to said geometry coordinates of said corresponding geometric primitive which bounds the volume object using the boundary coordinates; means for performing geometric operations on the corresponding geometric primitive the volume object is mapped to thereby resulting in a modified geometric primitive; and means for displaying the volume data according to the geometry coordinates of the modified geometric primitive using the mapping function determined whereby the volume object displayed is modified according to the geometric operations performed on the corresponding geometric primitive. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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Specification