Abstract: A thermal treatment system including a heat applying element for generating thermal doses for ablating a target mass in a patient, a controller for controlling thermal dose properties of the heat applying element, an imager for providing preliminary images of the target mass and thermal images during the treatment, and a planner for automatically constructing a treatment plan, comprising a series of treatment sites that are each represented by a set of thermal dose properties. The planner automatically constructs the treatment plan based on input information including one or more of a volume of the target mass, a distance from a skin surface of the patient to the target mass, a set of default thermal dose prediction properties, a set of user specified thermal dose prediction properties, physical properties of the heat applying elements, and images provided by the imager.

Abstract: The method and apparatus of the present invention provides real-time reorientation of stored data and real-time visualization for high resolution volumetric datasets from an arbitrary designed viewing direction. The apparatus includes a modularized memory having a plurality of memory modules wherein each memory module includes a plurality of memory storage units capable of storing voxel data therein. The apparatus also includes reorientation unit coupled to each of the plurality of memory modules for simultaneously receiving voxel data from memory storage units of each memory module. The reorientation unit simultaneously provides the voxel data corresponding to a first memory storage unit to a second memory storage unit according to a desired viewing direction.

Abstract: A method for generating realistic images using discrete representations employs a discrete voxel based representation of the scene within a three-dimensional (3-D) Cubic Frame Buffer of infinitesimal voxels. Each voxel stores information corresponding to the attributes of that portion of the scene. Numerous sight rays are traversed through the Cubic Frame Buffer. When a non-transparent infinitesimal voxel is encountered by a traversing sight ray, a hit is recognized. The attributes of that portion of the object that is encountered are then used for generating secondary rays. Depending upon the number and characteristics of the secondary rays that are generated, an appropriate representation of the scene can be generated from any viewing direction.

Abstract: A thermal treatment system including a heat applying element for generating thermal doses for ablating a target mass in a patient, a controller for controlling thermal dose properties of the heat applying element, an imager for providing preliminary images of the target mass and thermal images during the treatment, and a planner for automatically constructing a treatment plan, comprising a series of treatment sites that are each represented by a set of thermal dose properties. The planner automatically constructs the treatment plan based on input information including one or more of a volume of the target mass, a distance from a skin surface of the patient to the target mass, a set of default thermal dose prediction properties, a set of user specified thermal dose prediction properties, physical properties of the heat applying elements, and images provided by the imager.