Object rendering system to produce X-ray like images
First Claim
1. A system for rendering a material and geometric description of an object as a simulated X-Ray image, comprising:
- means for decomposing said object into a plurality of solids and a 3D model of said plurality of solids, each of said plurality of solids having a surface and a predetermined mass attenuation coefficient;
means for registering said 3D model in a 3D coordinate system including a source of a simulated X-Ray beam and a scene graph relating said plurality of solids;
means for passing said simulated X-Ray beam through said plurality of solids;
means for determining if said simulated X-Ray beam is entering or exiting a particular one of said plurality of solids;
means responsive thereto for locating a void along a path of said simulated X-Ray beam;
means for attenuating said simulated X-Ray beam according to said material and geometric description and said void; and
means responsive to the attenuation of said simulated X-Ray beam for independently rendering said plurality of solids as the simulated X-Ray image.
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Abstract
An object rendering system having a specialized algorithm is provided to convert a material and geometric description of an object to an X-Ray image of that object for use in medical applications and industrial non-destructive testing, thus to permit presentation of an object not the result of X-Ray in an X-Ray format. The system operates by considering that the object is composed of nested geometric solids, each defined by an enclosing surface, with the material property of each nested solid being defined in terms of an X-Ray mass-attenuation coefficient. Means for adjusting the mass attenuation coefficient of each of the enclosing surfaces is provided to permit each solid to be rendered independently.
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Citations
7 Claims
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1. A system for rendering a material and geometric description of an object as a simulated X-Ray image, comprising:
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means for decomposing said object into a plurality of solids and a 3D model of said plurality of solids, each of said plurality of solids having a surface and a predetermined mass attenuation coefficient; means for registering said 3D model in a 3D coordinate system including a source of a simulated X-Ray beam and a scene graph relating said plurality of solids; means for passing said simulated X-Ray beam through said plurality of solids; means for determining if said simulated X-Ray beam is entering or exiting a particular one of said plurality of solids; means responsive thereto for locating a void along a path of said simulated X-Ray beam; means for attenuating said simulated X-Ray beam according to said material and geometric description and said void; and means responsive to the attenuation of said simulated X-Ray beam for independently rendering said plurality of solids as the simulated X-Ray image. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for rendering a material and geometric description of an object into a simulated X-Ray image of said object comprising the steps of:
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providing a 3D model of solids corresponding to portions of said object; digitizing said solids to provide a surface corresponding to each of said solids; assigning a mass attenuations coefficient to each solid bounded by each corresponding surface and assigning a corresponding mass attenuation characteristic to said corresponding surface, said surfaces forming shells, each shell having a corresponding predetermined mass attenuation characteristic; positionally registering said shells in a scene graph to provide a registered shell geometry for relating surface geometries of said shells; passing a simulated X-Ray beam through said material and geometric description of said object while attenuating said simulated X-Ray beam according to said mass attenuation coefficients and said mass attenuation characteristics; rendering said shells to obtain a path length of each solid bounded by said shells that said simulated X-Ray beam passes through, so as to provide a depth image picture of each of said shells, thus to indicate a distance traversed by a given ray of said simulated X-Ray beam passing through said corresponding solid; combining each of said depth shell images with said associated mass attenuation coefficients by computing an attenuation image for each shell using said corresponding mass attenuation coefficient to provide shell attenuation images shaded to indicate a density thereof; and
,combining said shaded attenuation images to provide a combined simulated X-Ray image having the solids depicted thereat. - View Dependent Claims (7)
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Specification