Method and system for volume rendering

A volume-rendering tool comprising:

• (a) a data acquisition block configured to obtain volumetric data;
• (b) a transformation and classification block operatively coupled to the data acquisition block and configured to transform and classify the volumetric data to the samples with assigned values;
• (c) a footprint generator operatively coupled to the transformation and classification block and configured to convert one or more samples to respective sets of two-dimensional elements at an image plane thus giving rise to a plurality of two-dimensional elements, each said element characterized by a shape, a size, a position at the image plane and a value indicative of visual attributes of the element and its depth order among the plurality of two-dimensional elements, said value calculated in accordance with the value indicative visual attributes of respective sample and its position in the three-dimensional image space;
• each said set of two-dimensional elements configured to cover a projection of respective sample to the image plane such that at least part of each element is positioned within a boundary of said projection, wherein the numbers of the elements in each said set are limited by certain maximal Nmax and minimal Nmin numbers, and wherein at least two two-dimensional elements among said plurality of two-dimensional elements and characterized by at least partly overlapping position at the image plane are generated with different size thus giving rise to different-resolution two-dimensional elements;
• and
• (d) a compositing block operatively coupled to the footprint generator block and to a data structure manager, said data structure manager configured to generate and manage a data structure associated with the plurality of two-dimensional elements and configured to hold simultaneously data related to said different-resolution two-dimensional elements and to provide a relationship between said plurality and pixels in an image grid;
• wherein said compositing block is configured to process the data structure in accordance with certain sequence of associated two-dimensional elements in order to calculate values to be assigned to respective pixels for visualization.

A radar imaging system comprising:

• (a) a data acquisition block configured to obtain volumetric data;
• (b) a transformation and classification block operatively coupled to the data acquisition block and configured to transform and classify the volumetric data to the samples with assigned values;
• (c) a footprint generator operatively coupled to the transformation and classification block and configured to convert one or more samples to respective sets of two-dimensional elements at an image plane thus giving rise to a plurality of two-dimensional elements, each said element characterized by a shape, a size, a position at the image plane and a value indicative of visual attributes of the element and its depth order among the plurality of two-dimensional elements, said value calculated in accordance with the value indicative visual attributes of respective sample and its position in the three-dimensional image space;
• each said set of two-dimensional elements configured to cover a projection of respective sample to the image plane such that at least part of each element is positioned within a boundary of said projection, wherein the numbers of the elements in each said set are limited by certain maximal Nmax and minimal Nmin numbers, and wherein at least two two-dimensional elements among said plurality of two-dimensional elements and characterized by at least partly overlapping position at the image plane are generated with different size thus giving rise to different-resolution two-dimensional elements;
• and
• (d) a compositing block operatively coupled to the footprint generator block and to a data structure manager, said data structure manager configured to generate and manage a data structure associated with the plurality of two-dimensional elements and configured to hold simultaneously data related to said different-resolution two-dimensional elements and to provide a relationship between said plurality and pixels in an image grid;
• wherein said compositing block is configured to process the data structure in accordance with certain sequence of associated two-dimensional elements in order to calculate values to be assigned to respective pixels for visualization.

A computerized program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of volume rendering comprising

• (a) obtaining volumetric data represented as a plurality of samples, each sample characterized by a value indicative of visual attributes of the sample and its position in a three-dimensional image space;
• (b) converting one or more samples to respective sets of two-dimensional elements at an image plane thus giving rise to a plurality of two-dimensional elements, each said element characterized by a shape, a size, a position at the image plane and a value indicative of visual attributes of the element and its depth order among the plurality of two-dimensional elements, said value calculated in accordance with the value indicative visual attributes of respective sample and its position in the three-dimensional image space;
• each said set of two-dimensional elements configured to cover a projection of respective sample to the image plane such that at least part of each element is positioned within a boundary of said projection, wherein the numbers of the elements in each said set are limited by certain maximal Nmax and minimal Nmin numbers and wherein at least two two-dimensional elements among said plurality of two-dimensional elements and characterized by at least partly overlapping position at the image plane are generated with different size thus giving rise to different-resolution two-dimensional elements;
• (c) generating a data structure associated with the plurality of two-dimensional elements and configured to provide a relationship between said plurality and pixels in an image grid, wherein said data structure is configured to simultaneously hold data related to said different-resolution two-dimensional elements;
• and
• (d) processing the data structure in accordance with certain sequence of associated two-dimensional elements in order to calculate values to be assigned to respective pixels for visualization.

A computerized computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein of volume rendering the computer program product comprising:

• (a) computer readable program code for causing the computer to obtain volumetric data represented as a plurality of samples, each sample characterized by a value indicative of visual attributes of the sample and its position in a three-dimensional image space;
• (b) computer readable program code for causing the computer to convert one or more samples to respective sets of two-dimensional elements at an image plane thus giving rise to a plurality of two-dimensional elements, each said element characterized by a shape, a size, a position at the image plane and a value indicative of visual attributes of the element and its depth order among the plurality of two-dimensional elements, said value calculated in accordance with the value indicative visual attributes of respective sample and its position in the three-dimensional image space;
• each said set of two-dimensional elements configured to cover a projection of respective sample to the image plane such that at least part of each element is positioned within a boundary of said projection, wherein the numbers of the elements in each said set are limited by certain maximal Nmax and minimal Nmin numbers and wherein at least two two-dimensional elements among said plurality of two-dimensional elements and characterized by at least partly overlapping position at the image plane are generated with different size thus giving rise to different-resolution two-dimensional elements;
• (c) computer readable program code for causing the computer to generate a data structure associated with the plurality of two-dimensional elements and configured to provide a relationship between said plurality and pixels in an image grid, wherein said data structure is configured to simultaneously hold data related to said different-resolution two-dimensional elements;
• and
• (d) computer readable program code for causing the computer to process the data structure in accordance with certain sequence of associated two-dimensional elements in order to calculate values to be assigned to respective pixels for visualization.

A computerized method of volume rendering comprising

• (a) obtaining volumetric data represented as a plurality of voxels;
• (b) sampling the voxels at different resolutions corresponding to the limited number of two-dimensional elements per sample, thus giving rise to a plurality of different-resolution two-dimensional elements;
• and
• (c) compositing the two-dimensional elements among said plurality of different-resolution two-dimensional elements in order to calculate values to be assigned to respective pixels for visualization.