Analysis of Volumetric Images: Introduction

Research in 2-D image analysis has more than 30 years of history and has matured reasonably [1]. Research in volume image analysis, however, is still in its infancy. 3-D scanners that produce volumetric images have been around for some time. Although methods to analyze and visualize such images in volume form have been pursued for nearly 25 years now [2], brisk activity in this area is a rather recent phenomenon [3]. This special issue is intended to review previous work in volume image analysis and to introduce some new results. Research in volume image analysis may be categorized into the following nine groups.