Normal estimation in 3D discrete space

Three-dimensional voxel-based objects are inherently discrete and do not maintain any notion of a continuous surface or normal values, which are crucial for the simulation of light behavior. Thus, in volume rendering, the normal vector of the displayed surfaces must be estimated prior to rendering. We survey several methods for normal estimation and analyze their performance. One unique method, the context-sensitive approach, employs segmentation and segment-bounded operators that are based on object and slope discontinuities in order to achieve high fidelity normal estimation for rendering volumetric objects.