Abstract: In a client/server-based image archiving, image retrieval and image rendering system and method for storage, retrieval and graphical visualization of multi-dimensional digital image data such as assessment of medical image data, the detail depth level of volume data received via a data transfer network, to be shown in graphical form, is adjustable by the compressed volume data of subjects to be presented being stored with a highest-possible resolution (predetermined by an imaging system) in a databank administered by a server and directly accessibly only by this server.

Abstract: A method for multi-planar reconstruction of digitized medical images includes providing an image volume, sampling the neighborhood about each point in a planar region and saving a color value and a depth, providing a projection plane onto which rendering rays are projected from a viewing point through said image volume, advancing sampling points along rays through the image volume, computing depths of each sampling point, determining for sampling points on rays that penetrates the planar region if a depth of said sampling point is less than the buffer depth of a corresponding point in the planar region and sampling neighborhoods of points about such sampling points, determining if sampling points are near said planar region, applying first transfer function to sample values interpolated from first volume for sampling points close to or inside the planar region, and otherwise applying second transfer function to sample values interpolated from second volume.

Abstract: A method for volume rendering a digitized medical image includes providing a digitized medical image volume comprising a plurality of intensities on a 3-dimensional grid of points, providing a projection plane comprising a 2-dimensional lattice of points onto which rendering rays are projected from a viewing point through said image volume, advancing a sampling point along a ray through said image volume, generating an incision region within said image volume, determining whether said sampling point is within said incision region, wherein a first transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a first volume if said sampling point is within the incision region, and a second transfer function is applied to a sample value interpolated from a second volume if said sampling point is outside the incision region, and accumulating the output of the transfer function.

Abstract: A method for volume rendering a digitized image includes providing a pair of adjacent 2-dimensional images of texture data, identifying a plurality of polygons extending in slabs between said adjacent two dimensional textures, and finding the first and last visible voxel for the data rows and data columns of each said polygon. The minimum and maximum bounds of each data row and for each data column are determined, those data rows and data columns that do not contain any visible voxels are marked as invisible, and the polygons are rendered along a direction orthogonal to a dominant viewing direction, wherein rendering of texture data is restricted by the outer bounds of polygons that are trimmed to the minimum and maximum bounds of two neighboring data rows or data columns, and wherein those data rows and data columns marked as invisible are skipped.

Abstract: A first vehicle power steering system includes a twistable steering torsion bar, a magnet, a Hall sensor, and a valve. The steering torsion bar has a first end fixedly connected to a vehicle steering wheel. The magnet is movable in a first and an opposite second longitudinal direction with respect to the steering torsion bar and is constrained to move in the first longitudinal direction when the steering wheel is turned to the right by a driver and is constrained to move in the second longitudinal direction when the steering wheel is turned to the left by the driver. The Hall sensor has an output and is positioned proximate the magnet. The valve is operatively connected to the output. A second vehicle power steering system includes a twistable steering torsion bar, a ring-magnet support cylinder, a ring-magnet assembly, a ball-and-ramp assembly, a spring, a Hall sensor, and a valve.

Abstract: A method for volume rendering a digitized image includes providing a digitized 3-dimensional image with a plurality of 2-dimensional slices comprised of a plurality of intensities corresponding to a domain of points on a 2-dimensional grid, interleaving said slices so that a predetermined number of slices are represented within 2-dimensional textures comprising slabs. Each said slab comprises a plurality of polygons. Weighting functions are generated for each slice of each polygon of a slab, and using said weighting functions, computing a trilinearly interpolated sample from multiple bilinearly interpolated samples value for each slice of said polygon.

Abstract: The invention relates to an X-ray detector with detector elements (1) arranged in a layer. The detector elements (1) contain a scintillator element (2) for the conversion of X-rays (X) into photons (v), a photodiode (5) for detection of the photons (v), and a processing circuit (4) for the processing of electric signals generated by the photodiode (5). In order to protect the electronics (4) from X-rays a shielding (3) of variable effective thickness (d1, d2) is disposed in front of the electronics (4). This shielding (3) can in particular be L-shaped. By reduction of the effective thickness of the shielding (3) to a necessary minimum the volume of the scintillator unit (2) can be maximized.

Abstract: A vehicle power steering system includes a sweep magnet, at least one Hall sensor, and at least one hydraulic-power-steering-system valve. The sweep magnet is fixedly connected to a first end of a twistable steering torsion bar wherein the first end is fixedly connected to a vehicle steering wheel. The at-least-one Hall sensor is fixedly connected to a second end of the steering torsion bar. The at-least-one Hall sensor has an output and is positioned proximate the sweep magnet such that the output is a function of steering wheel torque when the vehicle steering wheel is turned by a driver. The at-least-one hydraulic-power-steering-system valve is operatively connected to the output.

Abstract: A method of direct volume rendering is provided comprising combining ambient occlusion volumes terms from a plurality of different filtered volumes using filters with different radii. During an ambient occlusion computation phase, the method obtains ambient occlusion terms from a plurality of different filtered volumes and, combining the ambient occlusion terms from the plurality of different filtered volumes into a composite ambient volume occlusion. During a subsequent volume rendering phase, data acquired from the subject is processed using the composite ambient volume occlusion to obtain a shaded rendition of an image of the subject.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for computing the shading of a volume. A slice of the volume is rendered along a half-angle direction that is between a light direction and a view direction. A slice of the volume is then rendered along a light direction to assimilate shadow information of the slice in a shadow buffer. The shadow buffer is bled orthogonal to the light direction to shade the slice.

Abstract: A system and method for rendering a binary volume in a GPU are provided. The method for rendering a binary volume comprises: storing eight bits of the binary volume along an x-axis in a byte of memory to form a compact representation of the binary volume; generating a two-dimensional decoding table of the compact representation of the binary volume; extracting a byte including a bit of interest from the compact representation of the binary volume; determining a bit coordinate for the bit of interest and extracting a decoded value of the bit of interest from the two-dimensional decoding table; obtaining a gray value of the decoded value of the bit of interest and classifying the gray value; and multiplying the decoded value of the bit of interest by the gray value to form a resultant value.

Abstract: A method and system for shading large volumetric data sets using partial derivatives computed in screen-space. The method and system provide a fast and efficient shading a large datasets. Screen space derivatives are computed efficiently by evaluating neighboring pixel information together. The method can be efficiently implemented using GPUs (graphics processing units) that provides some access to information about neighboring pixels using ddx and ddy fragment processing functions.

Abstract: A system and method for polygon-smoothing in texture-based volume rendering is provided. The method comprises the steps of: downsizing a slice polygon and determining boundary polygons around the downsized slice polygon using a smoothing factor, wherein the downsized slice polygon comprises first vertices and the boundary polygons comprise second vertices; generating a falloff ramp between the first vertices of the downsized slice polygon and the second vertices of the boundary polygons; and rendering the downsized slice polygon with texture-based volume rendering and the boundary polygons with texture-based volume rendering and the falloff ramp.

Abstract: Subsets of volume data are sequentially stored for volume rendering from two dimensional textures. For example, pairs of adjacent two-dimensional images are loaded into RAM or cache. One or more strips of texture data are interpolated for polygons extending between the two-dimensional images. The strips or polygons are more orthogonal to a viewing direction than the two-dimensional images. After interpolating texture data from the two-dimensional images for a plurality of non-coplanar polygons, the texture data is rendered. The rendered information represents one portion of the three dimensional representation. Other portions are rendered by repeating the process for other pairs or subset groups of adjacent two-dimensional images. A lower cost apparatus, such as a programmed computer or a GPU with a limited amount of memory, is able to render images for three dimensional representations of very large three-dimensional arrays. The images may be rendered without copying volume data for different main axes.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for visualizing volume rendered images relative to a viewing vector are provided, where the apparatus includes a processor, a detection unit in signal communication with the processor for detecting occluding contours of opacified structures in the image data, and a resampling unit in signal communication with the processor for generating curved multi-planar-reformat (MPR) resamplings that follow the occluding contours of the opacified structures; and the method includes receiving a volume rendered image, including distance values and surface normals for every pixel that is opacified, gathering all opacified pixels that are orthogonal to the viewing vector into a group of occluding points, and separating the group of occluding points into individual occluding contours.

Abstract: A hybrid switch actuator having six positions that are stable in the absence of current and in which displacement occurs between an initial position and a target position under the action of a current. The actuator includes a stator and a rotationally moveable rotor package. The stator has six pole shoes. Each pair of opposed pole shoes is equipped with a common exciting coil. The rotor package has two pairs of rotor poles magnetized transversely in alternate directions and a permanent magnet ring and two end caps adapted to be engaged around said permanent magnet ring. Each end cap is associated with two rotor poles having maximum radius regions that correspond to the area of each of the stator pole shoes and reduced radius regions positioned adjacent the maximum radius regions such that each rotor pole can be precisely aligned with each stator pole shoe.

Abstract: The process of concentrating a dilute sulfuric acid in a three-stage vacuum evaporation plant includes feeding an entry dilute sulfuric acid to a first evaporation stage of a vacuum evaporation plant to form an overhead vapor (6), withdrawing a finally concentrated sulfuric acid from the third evaporation stage (3), using steam or the overhead vapor (6) of the first evaporation stage as a heating fluid in the three-stage vacuum evaporation plant, maintaining the entry dilute sulfuric acid under a pressure of 0.4 to 0.7 bar and at a temperature of 80.degree. to 120.degree. C. in the first evaporation stage (1), maintaining the partially concentrated sulfuric acid under a pressure of 0.02 to 0.06 bar and at a temperature of 50.degree. to 90.degree. C. in the second evaporation stage (2), maintaining the further concentrated sulfuric acid under a pressure of 0.02 to 0.06 bar and at a temperature of 80.degree. to 120.degree. C.

Abstract: Stabilized diperoxydicarboxylic acids are prepared in which diperoxydicarboxylic acids are mixed with sodium sulfate produced in the process to yield improved diperoxydicarboxylic acid granules having good chemical stability despite a high impurity content, safe handling, low bulk density and high abrasion resistance.

Abstract: N-polyhydroxyalkyl fatty acid amides are used as thickening agents for liquid aqueous surfactant systems. Compounds of formula ##STR1## where R.sub.1 is an alkyl group; R.sub.2 is hydrogen, an alkyl group, or an alkylene oxide group; and X is a polyhydroxyalkyl group, are used as thickeners. The thickeners are particularly useful in liquid surfactant systems which contain paraffinsulfonate.

Abstract: The invention provides a process for the production of sinterable, finely divided molding compounds based on polyvinyl chloride by suspension polymerization of vinyl chloride in the presence of a suspending agent mixture of sulfated carbohydrate ester and cellulose ether. The compounds are useful for the production of sintered molded articles, such as separator plates. The molded articles or plates exhibit a slight electrical resistance and a high porosity with good acid storage volume.