Accelerated Volume Rendering

This paper presents the accelerated techniques developed in volume rendering in a coherent & systematic manner. These include the basic process of volume rendering, color composition, accelerated techniques in ray interaction, interpolation calculation, voxel ordering, & space transfer operation. In addition, recent advances in hardware acceleration and system-level accelerated performance (i.e. parallel processing, interactive volume navigation) are outlined. To take full advantage of volume rendering in real applications, all these acceleration techniques should be effectively integrated.