The Visible Human Project

Author

Ackerman, Michael J.

Author_Institution

Office of High Performance Comput. & Commun., Nat. Libr. of Med., Bethesda, MD, USA

Volume

86

Issue

3

fYear

1998

fDate

3/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

504

Lastpage

511

Abstract

The Visible Human Project data sets are designed to serve as a common reference point for the study of human anatomy, as a set of common public-domain data for testing medical imaging algorithms, and as a testbed and model for the construction of image libraries that can be accessed through networks. The data sets are being applied to a wide range of educational, diagnostic, treatment planning, virtual reality, artistic, mathematical, and industrial uses by more than 800 licensees in 27 countries. But key issues remain in the development of methods to link such image data to text-based data. Standards do not currently exist for such linkages. Basic research is needed in the description and representation of image-based structures and in the connection of image-based structural-anatomical data to text-based functional-physiological data. This is the larger, long-term goal of the Visible Human Project: to link the print library of functional-physiological knowledge with the image library of structural-anatomical knowledge transparently into one unified resource of health information

Keywords

biomedical education; information networks; libraries; medical image processing; patient treatment; physiology; planning; virtual reality; visual databases; Visible Human Project data sets; artistic use; common public-domain data; diagnostic use; educational use; health information resource; human anatomy; image data; image libraries; image-based structural-anatomical data; industrial use; mathematical use; medical imaging algorithm testing; networks; text-based functional-physiological data; treatment planning; virtual reality; Algorithm design and analysis; Biomedical imaging; Cognitive science; Computer displays; Human anatomy; Image storage; Libraries; Medical tests; Rendering (computer graphics); Two dimensional displays;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/5.662875

Filename

662875