Medical Imaging

There are few endeavours more noble than the preservation of life. Today, it can honestly be said that computer graphics plays an significant role in saving lives. The range of application spans from tools for teaching and diagnosis, all the way to treatment. Computer graphics is tool in medical applications rather than an a mere artifact. No cheating or tricks allowed.

How medical applications influence computer graphics technology

  1. New data representations and modalities

  2. Drive issues of precision and correctness

  3. Focus on presentation and interpretation of data

  4. Construction of models from acquired data

  5. Real Time may be a big issue in Virtual Reality Application

Visible Human Project®

The NPAC/OLDA Visible Human Viewer

http://www.dhpc.adelaide.edu.au/projects/vishuman/VisibleHuman.html

Example of augmented reality :

Image Guided Surgery from the MIT Medical Vision Group

The Visible Human Project® is an outgrowth of the NLM's 1986 Long-Range Plan (US National Library of Medicine). It is the creation of complete, anatomically detailed, three-dimensional representations of the normal male and female human bodies. Acquisition of transverse CT, MR and cryosection images of representative male and female cadavers has been completed. The male was sectioned at one millimetre intervals, the female at one-third of a millimetre intervals. The long-term goal of the Visible Human Project® is to produce a system of knowledge structures that will transparently link visual knowledge forms to symbolic knowledge formats such as the names of body parts.