3D searching starts to take shape [search engine]

The Internet and corporate data warehouses are full of all types of digital information, from simple text documents to complex applications. One type of information gaining in prominence is the three-dimensional object. From computer-aided design (CAD) drawings of complex engineering parts to digital representations of proteins and complex molecules, an increasing amount of 3D information is making its way onto the Web and into corporate databases. Advances in computing power combined with interactive modeling software, which lets users create images as queries for searches, have made 3D-search technology possible. 3D searching has several important elements: the voxel, query formulation, and 3D search process. 3D search engines help big companies quickly find whether they have certain parts in their inventories.