Progressive refinement for texture-based volume rendering

1. A method for rendering a two-dimensional image, comprising:

(a) obtaining a first three-dimensional set of data from an imaging apparatus for a first quality image;

(b) generating a second three-dimensional set of data for a second quality image from the obtained three-dimensional set of data, the second quality image being lower than the first quality image;

(c) rendering a third quality two-dimensional image from the second three-dimensional set of data;

(d) rendering a fourth quality two-dimensional image from a first portion of the first three-dimensional set of data, the rendered fourth quality image being a higher quality than the third quality;

(e) blending the rendered third quality two-dimensional image from a second three-dimensional set of data with the fourth quality two-dimensional image from the first portion of the first three-dimensional set of data;

(f) rendering a fifth quality two-dimensional image from a different portion from the first portion of the first three-dimensional set of data, the fifth quality image being of the same quality of the fourth quality image;

(g) blending the rendered third quality two-dimensional image from second three-dimensional set of data with the fifth quality two-dimensional image from the second portion of the first three-dimensional set of data; and

wherein the third quality two-dimensional image from the second three-dimensional set of data in (c) is an old image and the fourth quality two-dimensional image from the first portion of the first three-dimensional set of data in (d) is a new image, and wherein the blending of the old image with the new image is in accordance with: pixel color in blended image=pixel color in old image+(image completeness)*(pixel completeness)*(change ratio)*(pixel color in new image−pixel color in old image), where:

image completeness is a ratio in the range of 0 to 1;

pixel completeness is in accordance with: if (alpha of new color)>0.9*(alpha of old color) the pixel is completed, wherein completeness=1; otherwise the pixel is not completed and completeness=0;

where alpha is the opacity of the pixel; and

change ratio is a number from 0 to 1 and represents a desired rate of change from image to image, where 1 is for the most abrupt change and 0 is for the smoothest change.

2. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the blended image in (e) is then treated as an old image for the blending in (g).

3. The method recited in claim 1 wherein: image completeness is computed as the ratio of number of bricks in the image that are rendered/total number of bricks in the image to be rendered, wherein each brick is a plurality of voxels.

4. The method recited in claim 1 wherein: image completeness is computed such as the ratio of the number of voxels in the image rendered/total number of voxels in the image to be rendered.

5. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the method is iteratively performed until a final image is rendered and wherein completeness is computed as percentage of the final image actually rendered.