Pentium PC-based craniofacial 3D imaging and analysis system

PC-based computing is now ubiquitous in common consumer applications. Although PCs have equalled or surpassed engineering workstations in basic computing power and economy, there is still strong workstation dependency for imaging applications. In this paper, we demonstrate that a complete system, based on a Pentium PC and readily available inexpensive software, can be built very economically for effective execution of most of the commonly used 3D imaging operations. For the craniofacial application, the Pentium system offers a twofold speed advantage over a Sparc 20 system, allowing interactive fuzzy volume rendering of complex hard and soft tissue structures.