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."

Diagnosis

[jpmorgan]

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.

Re:Incredible learning tool

[commodore64_love]

Watching that video with the "layers of skin and bone peeling away" reminded me of some classic 1980s games. Like the Intellivision's Microsurgeon - the power of 16-bit gaming baby! ;-) LINK - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms_yLmub6PM [youtube.com]

IBM PC variant (check out the amazing 2 color graphics and hi-fidelity "beep" sound) ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5azQdQR35E [youtube.com]

Commodore Amiga variant - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAR_c89TjEc [youtube.com]

Re:Incredible learning tool

[TooMuchToDo]

I agree that visualizing greatly helps the learning experience in science and engineering and that tools like this would be very helpful in the areas of medicine and biology. A cool next step to this would be some sort of "virtual surgery" that could pay attention to what both hands were doing at once.

Like Microsoft's Natal concept? Where the controls are your hands or typical items? Combined with multi-touch tables, it's a fantastic idea for learning that could lower costs.

Another cool concept would be that these tables could pull from a database/data warehouse where all sorts of MRI data from real life cases is stored.