CHICAGO - Scottish 3-D software developer Voxar is using this week's RSNA conference as a springboard to introduce its new PC-based 3-D workstation, called Plug 'n View 3-D. The product is designed to bring clinically useful 3-D image visualization to radiologists at a price point far lower than the Unix-based workstations that have dominated the 3-D market thus far.
Due to the large size of 3-D data sets, most 3-D workstations used in medical imaging have been based on high-powered Unix computers. Voxar, however, has developed 3-D image visualization algorithms that can be used to build 3-D applications that run on Windows operating systems. Voxar, of Edinburgh, Scotland, has been licensing its algorithms to 3-D developers since it entered the medical imaging market in late 1997.
Plug 'n View 3-D represents a shift in the company's strategy. According to Don Alvarez, vice president of worldwide marketing and sales for the company, Plug 'n View is a full-featured 3-D application ready for use by radiologists. It supports full 3-D volume rendering techniques, as well as advanced 2-D image visualization methods such as multiplanar reformatting.
Voxar claims that its product offers unprecedented speed for Windows-based computers, allowing 3-D-rendered data to be displayed just 30 seconds after data acquisition is completed. Three-dimensional images can also be updated in real time. The software's speed is due to Voxar's use of voxel-based data rendering, rather than the polygon-based schemes employed by other 3-D rendering applications.
Voxar has adopted a two-pronged approach to marketing Plug 'n View 3-D, and will offer the product both through dealers and through OEM companies. The company's dealer network will handle direct sales to end users, selling Plug 'n View along with a PC as a turnkey 3-D solution. Dealers will also market a software-only version of the product that can be installed on existing PCs. Through the OEM channel, Voxar will make Plug 'n View available to imaging vendors as a software feature that can be integrated into a company's modality console to make it more functional.
Voxar estimates that the stand-alone version of Plug 'n View 3-D with PC will carry a list price of $9,000, with a software-only version available for $5,000. The software runs on all Windows platforms, and requires a PC with at least 256 MB of RAM. Plug 'n View 3-D was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in November.
Voxar is hoping that the low cost of Plug 'n View will make 3-D visualization affordable on a widespread basis. The company hopes that 3-D imaging will ultimately become as ubiquitous as teleradiology, according to Alvarez.
By Brian CaseyAuntMinnie.com staff writer
December 2, 1999
