Incrementally calculated cut-plane region for viewing a portion of a volume data set in real-time

Abstract

A volume rendering processor establishes a cut-plane region of a volume data set, the cut-plane region being defined by a plane equation and minimum and maximum distance values representing the values of the plane equation at outer faces of the cut-plane region. The plane equation is evaluated for each sample of the volume data, the result is compared with the minimum and maximum distance values to determine whether the sample is in the cut-plane region, and the visibility of the sample is adjusted depending on the comparison result. The plane equation is evaluated by continually accumulating the coefficient values in an order indicated by the ordering of the sequence of samples. Evaluation logic includes an accumulator, a 2-input adder, registers for saving intermediate accumulated values in corresponding dimensions of the volume data, multiplexers for selecting the adder inputs from among the coefficient values, the output of the accumulator and the values in the registers, and visibility calculation logic that adjusts the samples' visibility depending on the relationship between the output of the accumulator and the minimum and maximum distance values. In an inclusive operating mode, the visibility of the sample is set to zero if it is outside the cut-plane region, and in an exclusive mode the sample's visibility is set to zero if it lies in the cut-plane region. Falloff regions at each face of the cut-plane region are used to gradually adjust sample visibility to provide a smooth appearance.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.