More real-time visual and haptic interaction with anatomical data.

The University of Colorado's Center for Human Simulation has developed fundamental algorithms for real-time visual and haptic interaction with polygonal and voxel base data sets, including those derived from the Visible Human Dataset. These algorithms are currently being used to create prototype simulators for surgery, needle insertion (anesthesiology, radiology, and rheumatology), dentistry, and ophthalmology. This paper briefly discusses our segmentation and classification effort as well as our ability to create texture-mapped polygonal models directly from the data: both are fundamental to the creation of anatomically based simulators.

Real-time visually and haptically accurate surgical simulation.

The Visible Human Database provides a complete submillimeter photographic and radiological description of both a male and a female cadaver. The Center for Human Simulation has developed real-time algorithms that allow a user to wield a virtual scalpel and produce arbitrary cuts into the reconstructed body. Real-time interaction is achieved by producing the appropriate texture mapped surfaces directly from the Visible Human Database. We are currently combining a 3 degree of freedom PHANToM haptic device (SensAble Devices) with our surgical cutting algorithms to produce a system with the look and feel of surgical cutting.