Towards the Virtual Physiological Human

Abstract

The objective of this tutorial is to train students and researchers in the various domains involving the modelling and simulation of the human body for medical purposes. Human body representations have been used for centuries to help in understanding and documenting the shape and function of its compounding parts. Nowadays, medical acquisition devices especially medical scanners are able to produce a large amount of information, such as highresolution volumes, temporal sequences or functional images, more-and-more difficult to analyse and visualise. In other words, we measure much more than we understand. In this context, higher-level information such as anatomical and functional models is increasingly required to support diagnosis and treatment. Three levels of complexity can be distinguished (geometry, function and control) where modelling and simulation methods take place. In this tutorial, we will present the current research issues towards the patient-specific reconstruction of virtual models and their functional simulation. We will focus on the computer graphics aspects involved in medical modelling/ simulation: deformable model-based segmentation, mesh optimisation, data fusion, interactive mechanical simulation, cost-efficient visualisation, etc. Examples will be given in the musculoskeletal, cardiac and neurological domains. All speakers are partners of the EU project "3D Anatomical Human" led by MIRALab - University of Geneva.