CHASE MASTERS: Hi, my name is Chase Masters and I am the Enabling Technologies Informationist at the Taubman Health Sciences Library. Here, on the 4th floor of the library, we have the Anatomage Table: a virtual cadaver table that allows you to explore real, 3D images of the human body and much more. The table was funded through the Transforming Learning for a Third Century Initiative, a collaboration between the U-M Library and the Schools of Kinesiology, Dentistry, and Nursing. In this overview video, I will demonstrate some of its basic features to give you a better understanding of what it has to offer.
Alright, you’re now looking at the Anatomage Table, and we have the male 3D model loaded. So, to interact with the table, you just use your fingertips. I’ll use one finger to rotate the model, two fingers to move the model around the table, and you can also use two fingers to pinch to zoom: very similar to what you do on a tablet or a smartphone. Now, you’ll see I have zoomed in way too far and so let’s say I want to bring the model back to how it was. There are some predefined views available on the left hand side. So the bottom one is the picture of the model looking up. If you tap on that, that’s the same view we had at the beginning of the video. You can also change to the side, look at the top, or the top button with the arrows right here allows you to flip the view of the model from one side to the other. So for example, if the model we have loaded is laying down you can use the arrows to flip it from one side to the other.
Now, the Anatomage Table has many unique features. We are only going to cover a couple of them in this introductory video, but two of them are these sliders right over here on the bottom right hand side: so we have the brightness slider and the contrast slider. And how these work with three dimensional models is if I slide the brightness slider to the left, you’ll see it goes through some predefined views and slowly removes layers of skin and other tissue and organs and eventually down to the skeletal system. Move it back to the right, it starts adding it back. And if you’d like a more customized view, there is a whole separate menu available where you can just turn on or off very specific structures, organs, etc. Now, the bottom slider is the contrast slider. I’m going to move it all the way to the left. And as you see as we move to the right, it starts to display the veins, nerves, and lymphs. And by using the two of these sliders together, you can get some really interesting, unique views: still completely three dimensional and interactive. I’m going to bring my model back most of the way. I’m going to bring him upright again.
So now, I am going to go over a couple of the slicing tools. So, the first slicing tool is right down here: it’s simply the blue line with the scalpel. And the slicing tool allows you to draw a line from any angle on the table, let go, and then tap on the side that you wish you remove and it creates a perfect cut. Because this is a three dimensional model, you can then rotate it to look inside. Let’s zoom in for a better view. The slider right beside the slicing tool moves that slice up and down through the body from that angle that you created...bring it back. So now I’d like to undo all of this, so I’m first going to bring the model back to the original view and now this button down here with the model looking up: if I select that and tap on the top button with the round arrow, it will now undo that slice.
So, now for the next tool, I’m going to bring back the model all the way to the skin layer and we have the freehand dissection tool. So, that is the green line with the scalpel. When I select that, it brings up the window. What this allows you to do, is you can draw any freehand shape on the table, tap inside of it, and now what it’s going to do is remove the top layer of skin from just that portion of the model. Now that it’s been created, I can tap inside and as I tap it starts to remove more and more layers from within just that part of the body. And you’ll notice that it even brings up text telling you exactly what it is that you have removed. Now because this is fully three dimensional, you’ll see as I rotate it you can see a lot more inside as I move it around.
Before I stitch him back up, I’m going to show you a couple of other tools. Up here in the top left hand corner we have the pen tool: opens up a window. And there are a variety of colors available: I am going to choose red. If I choose the red pen, I can now draw on the table and it allows for very easy annotations. So let’s say I want to take this image with me: it’s exactly what I want to show to my students or perhaps it was a homework assignment. I am going to load that pen tool again and in the bottom left above the undo button there is a camera that takes a screenshot of whatever you have on the table. Now, the Anatomage Table has three USB ports on the side, so you can plug in a flash drive, select it from the left hand side (I am going to select the desktop as an example), hit the save button, and now that image has been saved to the desktop or your flash drive. Let me undo everything I’ve done here. So, the X button clears my drawings, this green arrow removes the dissection. There it goes.
And last but not least, I’ll show you the file menu. It’s in the bottom left hand corner. It looks kind of like a power button. And this allows you to load various other models to the table. So, the open file button allows you to open your own images or scans you have on a flash drive. So, it might be in the DICOM file format, for example. You’ve got the male full body scan, which we have loaded. There is a female version available. There is also a female version available that’s more computer generated with computer generated models. There’s higher resolution regional scans. So for example, if you’re only interested in the head and neck you can just load the head and neck. And it’s a higher quality, higher resolution model than the full body. There’s an image library that has hundreds of cases available from diseases to surgeries to animals that you can load on the table. There’s also some curriculum examples available, and you can minimize or exit the application, or click cancel to go back.
The Anatomage Table lives in the public space at the Taubman Health Sciences Library and is available for use outside of reserved hours. To submit a reservation request, please go to our website and fill out the form. Additional help documents, links, and videos are also available on our website and at the library’s Information Desk. Thank you for watching and we hope that you visit us soon!