The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 02, 2001
Filed:
Nov. 12, 1998
James Knittel, Groton, MA (US);
Vikram Simha, Lexington, MA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A low-cost, real-time volume rendering system including a three-dimensional cursor for interactively identifying and marking positions within a three-dimensional volume data set during display is disclosed. The cursor appearance is configurable such that it may appear as cross hairs, cross planes, or some combination thereof, with each cursor dimension being selectively enabled. Each cursor dimension is configurable in terms of color and level of opacity. The shape of the edges and the appearance of the intersection of the dimensions is configurable, and the colors of the individual cursor components may alternately blend or obscure the colors of the objects behind them. The cursor is realized through use of a comparison circuit operating in conjunction with a parallel pipeline processor optimized for volume rendering using a ray-casting technique. The comparison circuit checks whether the data sample is taken from a region of the three-dimensional object which may be affected by the presence of a three-dimensional cursor. Voxels which collectively define the object are ordered according to a given three-dimensional coordinate system; the desired cursor is also defined with respect to this coordinate system.