Reference: Brinkley, J. F. The Potential for Intelligent Three-Dimensional Ultrasound. 1988.
Abstract: In this chapter the problems and potential of three-dimensional ultrasound for obstetrics are examined. Parts of the discussion must necessarily be speculative since no commercially-available three-dimensional scanner currently exists. The chapter begins by considering the potential uses for three-dimensional ultrasound. A review is given of techiniques that have been used in obstetrics to obtain three-dimensional information from two- dimensional scanners, primarily for fetal weight estimation. Finally, specifications for a potential three-dimensional scanner are outlined, and the problems that must be solved to build such a scanner are described. An important component of these specifications is that, because of the limitations of ultrasound, such a scanner will have to be somewhat "intelligent" in order to disambiguate the information in the 3D echo data.