Multi-resolution LOD volume rendering in medicine

This paper presents a level of detail (LOD) selection algorithm for multi-resolution volume rendering using 3D texture mapping. It uses an adaptive scheme that renders the volume in a region-of-interest at a high resolution and the volume away from this region at progressively lower resolutions. The algorithm is based on several important criteria, rendering is done adaptively by selecting high-resolution cells close to a center of attention and low-resolution cells away from this area. In addition, our hierarchical level-of-detail representation guarantees consistent interpolation between different resolution levels. Experiments have been applied to a number of large medical data and produced high quality images at interactive frame rates using standard PC hardware.