Biomedical image processing is similar in concept to biomedical signal processing in multiple dimensions. It includes the analysis, enhancement and display of images captured via x-ray, ultrasound, MRI, nuclear medicine and optical imaging technologies.
Image reconstruction and modeling techniques allow instant processing of 2D signals to create 3D images. When the original CT scanner was invented in 1972, it literally took hours to acquire one slice of image data and more than 24 hours to reconstruct that data into a single image. Today, this acquisition and reconstruction occurs in less than a second.