Method and apparatus for real-time volume rendering from an arbitrary viewing direction

摘要

The method and apparatus of the present invention provides real-time reorientation of stored data and real-time visualization for high resolution volumetric datasets from an arbitrary designed viewing direction. The apparatus includes a modularized memory having a plurality of memory modules wherein each memory module includes a plurality of memory storage units capable of storing voxel data therein. The apparatus also includes reorientation unit coupled to each of the plurality of memory modules for simultaneously receiving voxel data from memory storage units of each memory module. The reorientation unit simultaneously provides the voxel data corresponding to a first memory storage unit to a second memory storage unit according to a desired viewing direction. The apparatus further includes fetching unit coupled to each of the plurality of memory modules for simultaneously retrieving voxel data from the plurality of memory modules according to the desired viewing direction and projection unit coupled to the fetching unit. The fetching unit provides the projection unit with voxel data retrieved from the plurality of memory modules. The voxel data retrieved by each projection ray includes a plurality of voxel attributes indicative of the characteristics of the object. The projection unit generates a projection value corresponding to the cumulation of voxel attributes. The projection value is indicative of the opaqueness of the aggregate of voxel attributes for each projection ray. The apparatus includes display unit coupled to the projection unit for displaying the projection value.