Methods from the field of biological imaging are tested and extended to support visualisation and manipulation of 3D volumetric datasets for application within design and making contexts.

Non-intrusive acquisition of 3d data of complex biological structures is key for an integration of this approach into design and fabrication processes. Current methods include Computed Tomography (CT), Confocal Microscopy and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). However, the datasets produced by these approaches require complex processing before quantitative and qualitative information can be extracted. A further complication is that data-processing and segmentation methods differ depending on the type of features or characteristics being investigated such as boundaries, bulk regions, local regions, groupings, networks, feature orientations, densities, etc. This presents challenges for those without expert knowledge in biological imaging and data-processing processes and practices.