3D Plate Reconstructions: NURBS Modeling

Abstract

Non-uniform rational B-splines, or NURBS, are some of the most commonly used geometric primitives in 3D modeling software today. With NURBS, free-form curves and surfaces as well as more traditional shapes, such as conics or quadrics can be clearly specified. NURBS were developed as a method of precisely specifying curves and surfaces for use by computer-controlled machines capable of producing shapes in 3D. With this technique, 3D models have smoother borders due to the analytic tessellation and are a very different from polygonal models, which are generally faceted. These properties of NURBS make it possible to create organic volumes such as brain deep gray nuclei.