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Afterwards each individual tooth was scanned with a special 3D-scanner at the University of Heidelberg and data sets were generated for each tooth.

This data set had to be reduced to between 8,000 (incisors) and 20,000 (molars) polygons per tooth. Polygons are small triangles from which 3-dimensional objects are assembled in the processor. A value for brightness and color is calculated for each of these triangles in the subsequent rendering. A further calculation is made, depending on whether the triangle is covered by another object or whether it casts a shadow on another object.