3D medical imaging: from 2D images to 3D models

Up to the end of the 70's, Medical Imaging was mainly related to the study of planar data sets resulting from direct physical acquisitions (e.g. X-Ray radiographs). Then, the development of inverse methods associated with the increasing power of computers enabled the visualization and the analysis of human being cross-section images (e.g. CT scans, MRI): these images are the result of mathematical processes and do not present direct physical acquisitions. The visualization of these data in three-dimensional space was made possible by the use of a set of parallel cross-sections: the result was spectacular but not sufficient for further development, especially in the case of clinical applications. Such applications need the characterization of a geometrical model, e.g. for the capture of sophisticated geometrical parameters or to provide a mathematical support to mechanical simulations.