Virtual human and its application in medicine

Summary form only given. Virtual human is a 3D human structure built in the computer. To obtain digital human data, a cadaver would be dissected into many very thin layers, scientists would then take digital color photo of the dissected layers. Data of each layer would be put together using advanced imaging technology to reconstruct a virtual human body, representing exact anatomical structures as a real human. Researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong have completed the processing of five Chinese Virtual Human datasets originally collected by the Third Military Medical University and the First Military Medical University of China separately. The highest resolution digital human dataset collected so far consists of 18,200 digital axial anatomical images obtained at 0.01-mm intervals, and it is 1,143 GB in size. By innovative processing of these ultra-high resolution digital human datasets, extremely fine anatomical details can be interactively visualized in 3D. There are many potential applications of virtual human in medicine. In this talk, we shall describe the making of a virtual human as well as the development of the following related medical applications: virtual arthroscopy; virtual acupuncture ; virtual anatomy