Introduction

Diagnostic imaging all started with X-rays giving doctors the ability to the analyze bones and tissue within the patient. Since then four other kinds of diagnostic imaging has been developed: CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, and ultrasound. It is the field of biomedical visualization that takes this data and presents it in such a way that doctors can better understand the patient's body through computer graphics. Unfortunately, most rendering techniques of today are too slow for practical use creating a lot of work for future researchers. This web page examines the state biomedical visualization today and explains techniques used to examine medical data.