SBIR-STTR Award

Technology can provide students without access to individual cadaver dissection with an opportunity to experience realistic simulations of dissections that retain the intellectual and educational value of a hands-on laboratory experience. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project from Visible Productions, LLC will focus on extending the technologies of a prototype system, which provide students with an opportunity to perform digital dissections, and on determining the feasibility of a robust Java-based implementation sufficient to support commercial scale use. The implementation will consist of a Java client application tightly integrated into a Web-based interface to the image request server. The integration of the Web interface and image server will allow for convenient image caching, retrieval, and management. This architecture will provide a seamless interface, invisible to the user, between local computation and remote image generation. In addition to offering a platform independent solution, the implementation of the client application in Java will be crucial to achieving this integration. The project will involve research into several areas not addressed by the prototype system. Specifically, performance of improvement of the digital staining algorithm required for Java implementation; management of local segmentation documents and transparent transmittal with imaging request to the server; Web-based user interface allowing students private, authenticated access to and management of the images produced from their requests; and beta testing with a small group of students. This project proffers a pedagogically sound approach in the area of anatomy, which will combine laboratory computers with a high-end system through the Internet in such a way, that students can use this platform without requiring the institution to acquire high-end technology.

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will continue research and development of the Digital Cadaver Environment -- software that makes available to students multiple views of virtual cadavers with improved visual quality of the computed image, an increase in the size and attributes of the data sets used for rendering images, support for automatic configuration of imaging parameter using heuristics, and support for interpolation of missing sections of a user stain document. Marking a unique approach to the application of computer technology to the undergraduate anatomy and physiology curriculum, this environment supports an interactive work model where students engage in the cycle of observation, interpretation, and action that characterizes the historic "dissect & sketch" paradigm. The Digital Cadaver environment allows students to produce an individual and unique record of their investigations. The Phase I demonstrated the feasibility of implementing the core functionality of the environment as a Java application and produced a beta version of the software. Phase II of the research will focus on research extending this development in four areas: 1) Tools for collaboration between students will be created, and an intuitive project management system implemented for managing collections of images and documents; 2) Imagery from Visible Productions will be introduced into the environment to overcome defects in the Visible Human (VH) data sets; these images may also serve as links to other content, such as animations, photographs, or other images and documents that serve to augment the current environment; 3) tools will be expanded to include volume rendering of images in all viewing planes (i.e., sagittal, coronal, and axial) and arbitrary slicing of any image set; the data sets available to the student will be expanded to include selected cryosections of the female VH data set and selected MRI (magnetic resonance imagery) and CT (computerized tomography) imagery from the male and female; and 4) on the server, a more sophisticated illumination model will be implemented for added realism, user selectable image display properties will be included (i.e., setting some tissue layers to transparent), and higher resolution images will be used; improved support for higher resolution images will complete the Digital Cadaver Immersive Environment. The Digital Cadaver Environment enables a wider range of people to gain greater competencies in human anatomy and physiology. These competencies may translate into better health care, wellness initiatives, and improved research outcomes. The use of the National Library of Medicine's Visible Human Project in the creation of new instructional tools for the health professions offers a good public policy model of government/industry collaboration.