User Interfaces for the Visible Human Project

Project Description:

The National Library of Medicine is preparing an archive consisting of anatomical images of a male and a female subject, including MRI, CT and Cryosection images. Datasets are expected to be distributed on magnetic or optical media but also by network file transfer and eventually by online database retrieval. This collection of images will be available to a large community of users with varying background and expertise.

We at the HCIL are exploring visual metaphors for browsing and querying anatomy databases. Our first prototypes include novel overview techniques for rapid exploration of volumetric data, and for browsing medical concepts and anatomical terms.

Software:

Our Visible Human Explorer user interface, which assists in browsing the Visible Human and retrieving images, is available for downloading.

Press: The Visible Human Explorer has made many public appearances in the press.

Papers and Videos:

C. North, B. Shneiderman, C. Plaisant. User Controlled Overviews of an Image Library: A Case Study of the Visible Human.Proc. of ACM Digital Libraries '96 Conf, ACM Press, 1996.

C. North, B. Shneiderman, and C. Plaisant. Visual Information Seeking in Digital Image Libraries: The Visible Human Explorer.Information in Images, Editor Glenn Becker, Thomson Technology Labs, 1997. pdf paper

C. North, B. Shneiderman, C. Plaisant. User Controlled Overviews of an Image Library: The Visible Human Explorer.Proc. National Library of Medicine Visible Human Project Conference, NIH, 1996.

C. North and F. Korn. Browsing Anatomical Image Databases: A Case Study of the Visible Human. Conf. Companion and Video Proc. of ACM CHI'96 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conf, 1996.

1995 HCIL Video Report

F. Korn and B. Shneiderman. Navigating Terminology Hierarchies to Access a Digital Library of Medical Images. University of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science Technical Report, 1995.

F. Korn. A Taxonomy of Browsing Methods: Approaches to the 'Lost in Concept Space' Problem. University of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science Technical Report, 1995.

Screen Shots:

Our Visible Human video (0.75 MB mpeg).

Combined Image and Text Approaches:

3D Approaches:

Applied to browsing Digital Video, Chicken Brains, Digital Libraries, etc.:

Our most recent work allows users to link many different windows together to construct powerful browsing environments for 2D and 3D image browsing:

Video:

Downloadable MPG (76MB)

Participants:

Ben Shneiderman, Professor Computer Science
Catherine Plaisant, Assistant Research Scientist
Chris North, Graduate Student Computer Science
Philip Korn, Graduate Student Computer Science

Web Accessibility