MULTIRESOLUTION REPRESENTATION AND VISUALIZATION OF VOLUME DATA

A system to represent and visualize scalar volume data at multiple res olution is presented. The system is built on a multiresolution model b ased on tetrahedral meshes with scattered vortices that can be obtaine d from any initial dataset. The model is built off-line through data s implification techniques, and stored in a compact data structure that supports fast on-line access. The system supports interactive visualiz ation of a representation at an arbitrary level of resolution through isosurface and projective methods. The user can interactively adapt th e quality of visualization to requirements ct a specific application t ask and to the performance of a specific hardware platform. Representa tions at different resolutions can be used together to further enhance interaction and performance through progressive and multiresolution r endering.