Graphics k D Arie Kaufman , State University of New York at Stony Broo

c vide mechanisms for peering inside volumetric datasets and for probing into voluminous and omplex structures and dynamics. It encompasses an array of techniques for projecting and l i shading a volumetric dataset or properties thereof and for interactively extracting meaningfu nformation from it using transformations, cuts, segmentation, translucency control, measurer g ments and the like. Typically, the volumetric dataset is represented as a 3D discrete regula rid (i.e., a 3D raster) of volume elements (in short, voxels) and is commonly stored in a t volume buffer (also called cubic frame buffer), which is a large 3D array of voxels. Alterna ively, other data structures and formats have been employed for storing and manipulating the , v dataset, such as cell decomposition as in octrees [2], sparse voxel matrices, semi-boundaries oxel runs, irregular grids, and surfaces of objects.