A new search tool developed by researchers at Microsoft indexes medical images of the human body, rather than the Web. On CT scans, it automatically finds organs and other structures, to help doctors navigate in and work with 3-D medical imagery. CT scans use X-rays to capture many slices through the body that can be combined to create a 3-D representation. This is a powerful tool for diagnosis, but it's far from easy to navigate, researchers mentioned from Microsoft Research Cambridge, U.K. It is very difficult even for someone very trained to get to the place they need to be to examine the source of a problem.
When a scan is loaded into the software, the program indexes the data and lists the organs it finds at the side of the screen, creating a table of hyperlinks for the body. A user can click on, say, the word ‘heart’ and be presented with a clear view of the organ without having to navigate through the imagery manually. Once an organ of interest has been found, a 2D and an enhanced 3D view of structures in the area are shown to the user, who can navigate by touching the screen on which the images are shown. A new scan can also be automatically and precisely matched up alongside a past one from the same patient, making it easy to see how a condition has progressed or regressed.
More information:
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/35076/?p1=A2
More information:
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/35076/?p1=A2