The visible man: Three-dimensional interactive musculoskeletal anatomic atlas of the lower extremity

A personal computer-based interactive musculoskeletal anatomic atlas of the lower extremity has been created by using the Visible Human Male data set. A semiautomatic segmentation program was developed by using an intelligent scissors approach and shape-based interpolation, thus considerably reducin g the laborious work of the segmentation and labeling process. Manual conto ur extractions at 3-mm section intervals and shape-based interpolations of intervening sections of the musculoskeletal structures of the lower extremi ty were performed. For interactive and realistic three-dimensional display, an efficient binary volume rendering method was developed that introduces the concept of shear-warp factorization and applies a newly developed norma l calculation technique. Binary volume rendering reconstructs various struc tures from a series of two-dimensional sections in a few seconds, thus enab ling real-time manipulations of the computerized atlas. All of the muscles, tendons, and bones of the lower extremity have been segmented and labeled. The volume-based three-dimensional interactive atlas supports various inte ractions including rotation, removal, highlighting with artificial colors, arbitrary cutting operation, transparent view, and descriptive knowledge re presentation. In addition, browsing through the two-dimensional images of t ransverse, coronal, and sagittal views with labeling and segmentation infor mation is possible.