The Annotation and Modeling application will create an archive of tagged image data for visualization, where every picture element can be associated with any number of different labels, for example the organ system to which it belongs, the structure and tissue types represented, the specimen to which it belongs, etc. This will provide the basic archive that the other two applications will use.
The Embryology Education application will make the visualization tools available for medical student use, and also will create animations of embryo organ system development. Software "morphing" techniques will be used to make a movie-like sequence of images derived from a selected set of embryos. Heart, lungs and caudal region will be modeled.
The Clinical Management Planning application
will make the data available in visual form so that a geographically
distributed group of physicians can look at it simultaneously, manipulate
it, and discuss it. This part of the project looks forward to a near-future
time when it will be possible to draw on contributions to medical analysis
and diagnosis by experts who may be geographically far from the patient's
location (and from each other), based on expected improvements in imaging
technologies.