Real-time volume rendering

With the advent of high-powered, commodity volume visualization hardware co mes a new challenge: effectively harnessing the visualization power to enab le greater understanding of data through dynamic interaction. We examine Cu be-4/VolumePro as the latest advance in real-time volume visualization hard ware. We describe tools to utilize this hardware including a software devel opers' kit, called the Cube Toolkit (CTK). We show how the CTK supports alg orithms such as perspective rendering, overlapping volumes, and geometry mi xing within volumes. We examine a case study of a virtual colonoscopy appli cation developed using the CTK. (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.