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The University of Michigan Next Generation Internet Implementation to
Serve
Visible Human Datasets
Introduction
The University of Michigan Visible Human (UMVH) project will use the Next Generation
Internet (NGI) to serve Visible Human (VH) data to Health
Science students, clinicians, basic science faculty, and researchers. Novel 2D and 3D
navigational browsers will provide VH derived content in an
educationally relevant manner (incorporating current trends in Advanced Distributed Learning
technologies). Arbitrary slices, text, models, and
flythroughs are being packaged into learning modules organized systemically or regionally to be
delivered to many simultaneous users.
Collaboratory
The UMVH team is establishing a Visible Human Collaboratory for Medical Education and
Training that connects researchers via the Next Generation
Internet/Internet-2 backbone. The core groups include Stanford University, the University of
Colorado Health Sciences, the Pittsburgh
Supercomputing Center (PSC), the National Library of Medicine, and the Uniformed Service
University of the Health Sciences. Working within the
context of this larger collaboratory of VH researchers, UMVH promotes a set of open standards
for datatypes and information related to the VH
datasets. For example, such standards may include Extensible Markup Language (XML) for data
interchange and Common Anatomical Markup
Language (CAML) for data descriptors of anatomical terminology. Once adopted, other groups
with NGI connectivity will be able to query the
UMVH databases and access this information. Feedback from these groups will drive revisions
and extensions.
Networking
The UMVH team is currently addressing two network issues. 1) Network testing between UM
and PSC has uncovered bottlenecks within the
framework and network architecture currently in place, and 2) the "last mile" problem, where
data transmission to the client is typically throttled down
at the final connection in the pathway. We predict that advances in high-speed network delivery
such as DSL will eventually overcome this deficiency.
Past and Current Work
The UMVH project is building on two previous software development efforts. The first is a
series of Web based browsers showing three orthogonal
(transverse, sagittal, and coronal) views of the VH dataset in either high, medium, or low
resolution. Enhancements to this software will include
arbitrary slicing through the dataset, 3D model views showing model-plane and model-model
relationships, network connectivity with the UM
Anatomical database, and image-based/text-based queries (
Figure 1).
The second is the application, Edgewarp. Edgewarp is a stand-alone workstation package for
manipulation of 2D and 3D biomedical images and
related data structures by a combination of landmark location, thin-plate spline, and image
unwarping and averaging. The new version of Edgewarp will
eventually comprise three main modules: one for digitizing landmark point locations and curving
data, one for displaying thin-plate splines in two and
three dimensions, and one for image processing, unwarping, and averaging (
Figure 2).
Additionally, the UMVH team is working with Ethereal Technologies, Inc. to develop a
real-time, immersive display system for the UMVH project.
This will allow remote 3D visualizations of the VH dataset using standard PC graphics displayed
onto a concave mirrored surface. Scenes are viewed
in 3D without the use of conventional shutter glasses.
Conclusions
Software created during the UMVH project will address many issues, including scalability,
quality of service (fault reduction and tolerance), and image
understanding. The goal of this project is to architect an open software framework that
accommodates future datasets and seamlessly integrates with
data and software from other VH researchers within a larger collaboratory.
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