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Virtual Autopsy On a Multi-Touch Table Surface
An anonymous reader writes "Engadget points out one of the more interesting ways to use a multitouch table surface so far. Researchers at Norrkoping Visualization Centre and the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization in Sweden have fitted such a device with stunning, volume-rendered visualizations of high-resolution MRI data. If you've ever wondered what the inside of a human being really looks like, but lacked the grit or credentials to watch an autopsy in the flesh, check it out."
I had the pleasure of taking Human Anatomy and Physiology a few years ago. The professor was superb, but our school didn't have the resources to afford a cadaver lab.
Pictures and plastic models are OK, but there are times when being able to visualize something like this would greatly help the learning experience.
Waiting with anticipation.
Camping on quad since 1996.
I think I've played this before, it's called operation! I was never very good at it. I always preferred to play doctor instead.
I love the way they scrape the bottom of the obscure niche barrel to prove this toy technology is actually useful.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Look honey, I bought us a new dining room table. Take a look at what it can do. Why aren't you eating, aren't you hungry?
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It may be a virtual autopsy today, but how long until we see something similar but as a diagnostic tool? It'll probably take another years to bring everything together (and 3d image reconstruction is still a computationally intensive task), but I can see something like this coupled with MRI and other diagnostic data from live patients. Fantastic.
Just wait until the porn industry gets its hands on this technology...
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
This seems like it can be done just fine with a mouse (scroll to zoom, click around) like we do with 3D CAD software. The real genius is in the imaging, compiling of the MRI/CT data, and putting it in a clean 3D interactive environment.
I used to work at a hospital, and they let me sit in on one. What you miss is the yellow skin of corpses, and the fact that they still make noises from various orifices when you move the body parts.
The gall bladder really is green -- it's not an artifact of textbook coloring.
Everyone said I will get sick from watching a real autopsy, but it didn't feel any worse than watching a horror movie. I wore a mask, so didn't smell much.
The concept and imaging are fantastic, but I hope the technology improves as the table didn't appear very responsive. I was annoyed just watching the users struggling to navigate it.
I'm wrong and so are you.
On the television shows Bones and CSI: NY, they demonstrated mythical versions of this technology already :) It's awesome when fake-tech becomes the real thing.
Well, what I want is a 62", quad-HD touchscreen - stylus is fine - for reviewing architectural prints. They rarely come in larger than E size (30x42) which would fit well on a 62" widescreen monitor at 100% scale. Let me mark them up with a stylus and send them off. Make it responsive (i.e. - don't let Adobe or Autodesk code the reader) so can "flip" through a set quickly. And make it cost under $5k. That last one is mostly just quantity, since all I'm really looking for a 62" tablet computer with a decent i7 quad core and the new Radeon graphics card. The card can run the resolution and crunch the numbers in 2D or 3D (for models). The i7 can do the background work and keep things moving. That resolution isn't in vogue - yet - but it's already on drawing boards, and the pixel pitch is larger than current monitors. Touch surfaces seem less and less novel each day now that they're incorporated into practically everything.
Problem is, even if it existed today, there are likely no more than a ten thousand that would be sold at the $5k price point, and less than 1000 at the $10-15k price point needed to get production ramped up.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The slashdot post meantions MRI data, but it is actually both "Dual Energy Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance" data, according to original source. That is CT and MRI data.
What a complete misnomer.
There is a distinction between anatomy and a post-mortem examination -- the former describes structures and their relationships to each other. In a post-mortem, one renders diagnoses and talks about disease processes -- none of which is discussed in the video. This video shows virtual anatomy, not a virtual autopsy. (Which has been done before, very ho-hum.)
In a real autopsy, a pathologist not only examines the organs and their appearance, but they also take pieces of tissue for examination underneath the microscope to actually see what disease processes are going on. Which obviously can't be done in a fake autopsy.
Or, to make a car analogy: radiology ('virtual autopsy') is like looking at the warning indicators on your dashboard to see what's wrong. A real autopsy involves popping the hood of the car and actually checking the engine, radiator, hydraulics, whatever -- getting down and dirty and *finding* the problem.
With respect to "keeping corpses intact for a viewing": the autopsy cuts are made to the torso and abdomen. Most people, I am informed, are not buried in the nude (or a swimsuit), and therefore those cuts do not show at the time of a viewing. Even the cut used to remove the brain is generally hidden under hair.
The data is clearly CT (which is always "high res"), not MRI. MRI images soft tissue and is not good for visualization of skeletal features.
CT has come a long way in terms of soft tissue imaging as well. Radiation, yes. But much less radiation that years ago.
I'd much rather get a CT with a definitive diagnosis.
If I was born with a diamond spoon in my mouth I would sell that spoon and have this installed in my house. Such a great educational tool; I've seen quite a few other virtual surgery application in the past but nothing had compare to this.
I think this is just savvy marketing to get exposure for the research lab. In reality this is a virtual anatomy tool that has a 3D interface and works on a fancy multi-touch table. This is a lot like the virtual human project (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html) but works with any human that will fit in the scanner(s), and has cool interface.
This is an excellent tool for pre-surgery visualization, for augmenting radiological visualization, and for education purposes but could not replicate and certainly not replace a true a post-mortem examination.
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"Yes, there's an app for that."
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Why do you need a multitouch table for this?
Couldn't the same thing be done for cheaper using a large LCD screen and a mouse?
Its just a flat-screen computer laid on it side to be horizontal. And software/hardware that allows multi-touch. This fails to even qualify as an invention. Its like a gigantic iphone sitting on the floor.
Whats the harm in yelling 'Computer, end program!'? You could be living in Star Trek! Go on.. give it a try.
Thanks for all of your comments. It's nice to hear input from the outside world.
There are a number of things as to why this project is done:
- Virtual autopsies don't replace real autopsies; the virtual autopsies are commonly used as a verification method to aid real autopsies or to check on clinical cases;
- The visualization use a standard visualization technique for the actual visualization. What is novel here is the way that the large data sets is reduced in size (from 6 GB to about 512MB). We then use the GPU to render the images on the fly;
- Bring knowledge the general public. We did not try to come up with a new invention. Our aim is to have people interact with the visualization in a nice way and educate them. A multi-touch interface is simply one way to make it more fun.