Abstract: A method of path planning, comprising providing a dataset representing a cavity and a boundary; providing a plurality of points in said dataset, including at least a starting point and an ending point; and automatically determining a path between the starting point and the ending point, responsive to a penalty associated with passing through points in the cavity. Preferably, the penalty value associated with a point depends on a distance between the point and the boundary.

Abstract: A method for forming a high spatial resolution perspective rendering from a low spatial resolution voxel space is disclosed. The method comprises steps of: a) initializing a virtual window of predetermined resolution pixels, and placing the virtual window in or near the voxel space; b) sparsely ray-casting a plurality of vectors from a predetermined vantage-point through the virtual window into the voxel space; and c) calculating a visualization-value at a series of positions along each vector. In a position ordering of steps from the vantage-point to the pixel, an accumulated transparency-value threshold is calculated. Values of proximate voxels are interpolated into an interpolated voxel value for each position. The interpolated voxel values are then transformed into a derived visualization-value and transparency value.

Abstract: A method of compressing a medical image, including: providing a medical diagnostic image, having associated therewith at least one windowing parameter; automatically selecting a desired compression quality, responsive to the at least one windowing parameter; and compressing the image, using a lossy compression method, such that a decompressed image will have substantially the desired compression quality. Preferably, the at least one windowing parameter is provided by an imaging technician. Preferably, the compression method is a wavelet compression method.

Abstract: A method of determining a z-buffer for a voxel data set, comprising first raycasting at least a first ray to determine a value for a first z-buffer element; and second raycasting at least a second ray to determine a value for a second z-buffer element, where said z-buffer element values are determined at different accuracies, which different accuracies are responsive to characteristics of the data set at a neighborhood of said rays. Preferably, said different accuracies are achieved by modifying the accuracy of determination of an intersection between a cast ray and a solid voxel of said data set. Alternatively or additionally, said different accuracies are achieved by modifying the density of raycasting into the z-buffer.