Prioritized image visualization from scalable compressed data

1. A method for prioritized transmission of scalable compressed data, comprising:

receiving an interactive prioritization request from a client;

prioritizing transmission of the compressed data relative to a bin optimization in response to the interactive prioritization request; and

transmitting the prioritized compressed data to the client.

2. A method as defined In claim 1 , further comprising transcoding the scalable compressed data into resized precincts for the bin optimization.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:

providing an interactive prioritization request to a server

receiving prioritized compressed data from the server;

decompressing the prioritized data; and

rendering the decompressed data.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the compressed data is responsive to a discrete wavelet transform, the method further comprising maintaining a cache responsive to the received prioritized compressed data.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 , further comprising maintaining a cache model at the server indicative of the cache responsive to the received prioritized compressed data.

6. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the rendering is surface rendering, the bin optimization comprising a bin-table generated before, during or after compression of the data.

7. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the rendering is volume rendering, the bin optimization comprising a bin-table generated after compression of the data.

8. A method as defined in claim 3 , further comprising:

identifying a volume of interest (VOI); and

progressively refining the volume within the VOI towards an increasingly lossless representation.

9. A method as defined in claim 8 wherein contextual background information is provided with a quality fading away from the VOI.

10. A method as defined in claim 3 , further comprising at least one of:

browsing and rendering any sub-section of the volume at a variable resolution with varying levels of visual quality; and

visualizing any arbitrary set of tissue types with enhanced quality.

11. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the communication protocol allows the client to communicate its cache state to the server.

12. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the interactive prioritization request comprises a request to progressively receive data corresponding to one of a plurality of tissue types.

13. A method as defined in claim 1 , prioritizing comprising re-ordering the same compressed data file on the fly to serve data packets prioritized per the request.

14. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the bin optimization is responsive to a bin mask, the bin mask corresponding to at least one of scalar intensity and opacity, the method further comprising creating a code-block mask responsive to the bin mask, the code-block mask being indicative of the relevant code-blocks on a sub-band domain.

15. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein the code-block mask is responsive to at least one level of transform applied along the x, y and z directions.

16. A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:

resizing precincts to a size no smaller than a single code-block; and

re-layering the resized precincts into packets to emphasize one or more data bins as chosen by the client.

17. A method as defined in claim 16 , the bin optimization comprising a bin-table generated during or after data compression, the method further comprising, prior to re-layering, determining from the bin-table the degree to which each precinct contributes to the code-block mask for a bin.

18. A system for prioritized transmission of scalable compressed data, comprising:

a database server for receiving an interactive prioritization request from a client and prioritizing transmission of the compressed data relative to a bin optimization in response to the interactive prioritization request; and

transmission means in signal communication with the database server for transmitting the prioritized compressed data to the client.

19. A system as defined in claim 18 , further comprising:

interactive request means for providing an interactive prioritization request to a server;

receiver means in signal communication with the interactive request means for receiving prioritized compressed data from the server;

a decompressor in signal communication with the receiver means for decompressing the prioritized data; and

a rendering engine in signal communication with the decompressor for rendering the decompressed data.

20. “A storage device containing a computer-readable medium, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer to perform steps for prioritized transmission of”scalable compressed data, the program steps comprising:

receiving an interactive prioritization request from a client;

prioritizing transmission of the compressed data relative to a bin optimization in response to the interactive prioritization request; and

transmitting the prioritized compressed data to the client.

21. “A storage device containing a computer-readable”medium as defined in claim 20 , the program steps further comprising:

providing an interactive prioritization request to a server;

receiving prioritized compressed data from the server;

decompressing the prioritized data; and

rendering the decompressed data.