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Abstract

An apparatus and method for rendering multiplanar reformatting (MPR) images of volume data to be displayed to a user. The apparatus may comprise a conventional personal computer system having a central processing unit (CPU) coupled to a system memory for storing the volume data and a graphics processing unit (GPU) having a GPU memory connected to the computer bus. The computer system CPU is configured to predict an MPR image which may be required for display at a future time and to identify blocks of voxels comprising the volume data which will be needed to render the predicted MPR image. The CPU is further operable to retrieve these blocks from the system memory and to queue them for transfer to the GPU memory. The transfer of blocks from the queue to the GPU memory is controlled by a scheduler such that at least some of the queued blocks are transferred to the GPU memory prior to the predicted MPR image becoming required for display. The GPU retrieves blocks from the GPU memory and renders corresponding image parts for assembly into the predicted MPR image should it become required for display.

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First Claim