Sliding texture volume rendering
First Claim
1. A method for volume rendering from two dimensional textures, the method comprising:
- sequentially loading subsets of two-dimensional textures from a set of data representing a volume into a memory, each new one of the subsets formed by replacing at least one of the two-dimensional textures of a previous subset with another one of the two-dimensional textures, such that less of the memory is used at a given time for rendering than loading the entire volume into the memory; and
for each subset, rendering a portion of an image from the subset.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Subsets of volume data are sequentially stored for volume rendering from two dimensional textures. For example, pairs of adjacent two-dimensional images are loaded into RAM or cache. Strips of texture data are interpolated for polygons extending between the two-dimensional images. The strips or polygons are more orthogonal to a viewing direction than the two-dimensional images. After interpolating texture data from the two-dimensional images for a plurality of non-coplanar polygons, the texture data is rendered. The rendered information represents one portion of the three dimensional representation. Other portions are rendered by repeating the process for other pairs or subset groups of adjacent two-dimensional images. A lower cost apparatus, such as a programmed computer or a GPU with a limited amount of memory, is able to render images for three dimensional representations of very large three-dimensional arrays. The images may be rendered without copying volume data for different main axes.
11 Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method for volume rendering from two dimensional textures, the method comprising:
-
sequentially loading subsets of two-dimensional textures from a set of data representing a volume into a memory, each new one of the subsets formed by replacing at least one of the two-dimensional textures of a previous subset with another one of the two-dimensional textures, such that less of the memory is used at a given time for rendering than loading the entire volume into the memory; and for each subset, rendering a portion of an image from the subset. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A system for generating data for volume rendering, the system comprising:
-
a memory operable to sequentially store different subsets of a plurality of two dimensional images, the two-dimensional images of each subsequent subset replacing the two-dimensional images of each previous subset; and a processor operable to render a rendered two-dimensional image as a function of the subsets, different portions of the rendered two-dimensional image rendered sequentially from the sequentially stored different subsets. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A method for volume rendering from two dimensional textures, the method comprising:
-
identifying polygons extending as strips between adjacent two dimensional textures representing a patient, the strips being non-parallel with the two dimensional textures and being on different planes intersecting the two dimensional textures; generating, by a processor, texture data for the polygons, wherein generating texture data comprises 2D texture mapping with object-order data access achieved through the use of data-aligned polygon strips; and rendering an image, on a display, from the texture data for the polygons. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
-
Specification