Spatial body models based on tomographic images play an increasingly important role in medical research and education, planning of interventions, and simulation of procedures. This tutorial will present state-of-the-art methods for creating, representing, and exploring these models.
Specific topics that will be discussed include suitable data structures like "intelligent volumes" for integrating volume data and symbolic information. These structures are filled using volume segmentation and knowledge editing techniques. The resulting virtual body models are explored via volume visualization. Simulations can be performed using volume deformation methods or involving inference procedures within semantic networks. Variability of human neuro-anatomy and neuro-pathology is described with 3D probabilistic atlases. Methods for automatic generation of such models from MRI data will be presented.
Methods will be illustrated with various examples from body models based on radiological images as well as the anatomical Visible Human data. Typical applications include simulation of endoscopy and laparoscopy, planning of surgical procedures, authoring of multimedia documents, or interpretation support for PET studies and ultrasound images. The tutorial will include online demos of the scientific software VOXEL-MAN.