US Patent 9064346 Hierarchical based 3D image processor, method, and medium

A three dimensional (3D) image processing using ray tracing. The 3D image processing includes checking for a collision of rays, each ray respectively corresponding to a pixel of a plurality of pixels included in an image, and generating a plurality of corresponding ray trees to a first depth; and checking a collision of rays, each ray respectively corresponding to at least one pixel of the plurality of pixels, and updating a ray tree corresponding to the at least one pixel to a second depth.