In article <15887 at bonzo.ed.ac.uk> kate at cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Kate Jeffery) writes:
>In article <28o4s0$hac at news.u.washington.edu> dfitts at carson.u.washington.edu>(Douglas Fitts) writes:
>>Sorry, can't help. I actually tried this once, coding in reference
>>points from Paxinos & Watson in 3-D ......>... Anyway, I got something I
>>could rotate, all right, but it looked nothing like the brain. The
>>successive slides of P&W aren't really closely aligned, it seems...
>>If someone has a line on a really good effort at this please be sure to
>>post it. It's likely to be general interest -- and I mean a *PC*
>>version, not a Hypercard stack on a MAC, I think there is already a
>>MAC version out.
>Yes a couple of people have mentioned a package on the Mac called
>BrainBrowser, although it sounds like it would need to be converted
>from a series of slices to a 3-D model. The Paxinos and Watson atlas
>was constructed from over a hundred brains so the smoothing would be a
>formidable task. What is really needed is someone with the patience to
>sit down and slice and draw a single brain. Any anatomists out there
>could be tempted?! From the replies I've had it sounds like there
>might be a healthy market...
>**************************************************************************
>Kate Jeffery, Dept. of Pharmacology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland UK
>**************************************************************************
As an anatomist, first, and a computer-junkie, second, I would love to tackle
a problem such as this. Here are the caveats as I see them:
1. Time/materials expense. Although I, and likely a large number of labs,
possess the tools to complete such a job, the money needed for this
project would be required UP FRONT. I'm fairly sure that a good job cannot be
done in one's spare time with their own funds, thus backing of SOME kind is
necessary. I know a number of publishers are sometimes willing to invest in
such projects. The problem, as always, is having enough data to convince them
their investment will pay off.
2. I envision a 3D display that can be rotated, sliced in any plane,
interrogated by mouse pointer, etc. These are fairly complex tasks that will
require high-end computers for non-frustating execution speeds. The user
may require AT LEAST a 486-33 MHz, or a MAC IIfx, or a UNIX box. In my
experience these requirements always raise the price of the product and
decrease the potential market. The point here is that the product must be in
a form that would be of value to the widest audience. That means low cost and
machine-independence.
Any other thoughts on developing such a project?
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*Thomas Trusk, PhD * *
*Dept. of Cellular Biology & Anatomy * I'm a peripheral visionary. *
*Medical College of Wisconsin * I can see into the future... *
*Milwaukee, WI 53226 * Just way off to the side. *
*MaBellNet: (414) 257-8504 * *
*INTERNET: ttrusk at its.mcw.edu * Steven Wright *
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