The Eyes Have It

The Japanese Gallery of Psychiatric Art. Images from Japanese psychiatric medication advertisements : 1956-2003. Interesting contrast to the American Gallery of Psychiatric Art.

Recently presented at SIGGRAPH 2003 — “Reanimating the Dead: Reconstruction of Expressive Faces from Skull Data” (K. Kähler, J. Haber, H.-P. Seidel: Reanimating the Dead: Reconstruction of Expressive Faces from Skull Data, ACM Transactions on Graphics (SIGGRAPH 2003 Conference Proceedings), 22(3), July 2003, pp. 554-561.).

“Facial reconstruction for postmortem identification of humans from their skeletal remains is a challenging and fascinating part of forensic art. The former look of a face can be approximated by predicting and modeling the layers of tissue on the skull. This work is as of today carried out solely by physical sculpting with clay, where experienced artists invest up to hundreds of hours to craft a reconstructed face model. Remarkably, one of the most popular tissue reconstruction methods bears many resemblances with surface fitting techniques used in computer graphics, thus suggesting the possibility of a transfer of the manual approach to the computer. In this paper, we present a facial reconstruction approach that fits an anatomy-based virtual head model, incorporating skin and muscles, to a scanned skull using statistical data on skull / tissue relationships. The approach has many advantages over the traditional process: a reconstruction can be completed in about an hour from acquired skull data; also, variations such as a slender or a more obese build of the modeled individual are easily created. Last not least, by matching not only skin geometry but also virtual muscle layers, an animatable head model is generated that can be used to form facial expressions beyond the neutral face typically used in physical reconstructions.“

New Scientist article: “Animation lets murder victims have final say”

[via Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends]

A project of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Visible Human Server offers:

“a virtual anatomic construction kit on the web using the Visible Human dataset. The applets available on this site provide the following features:

• Extract slices, curved surfaces, and slice animations from both datasets (male and female)
• Interactively navigate by slicing through the male dataset in real-time
• Construct 3D anatomical scenes using combinations of slices and 3D models of internal structures from the male dataset, and extract 3D animations
• Add voice comments to video sequences generated using the applets“

The site includes a discussion forum and one user shares how these tools allowed him to see anatomy in a way other methods couldn’t:

“I have been lying awake, trying to visualise an orbital fracture a patient has, but no success. I’ve checked Grant’s Atlas and a textbook of sectional anatomy, but no success - I still can’t get a feel for it. After having a midnight snack and thinking there must be something on the internet, I found this site. 1 hour later, having fiddled with the applet - HURRAH ! I now know exactly where it is and have a better appreciation for the anatomy of the area.“

roadsideamerica.com examines the transparent anatomical manikin phenomenon in this field review. Unfortunately, many of these classic teaching tools are being replaced by flashier interactive, digital multimedia exhibits.

“Anyone who thinks men are transparent should visit the nation’s health education museums. That’s where you can find transparent women, life-size see-through models used to explain anatomy and the mysteries of life to generations of school children.

Transparent women were created as public health education tools 30 or 40 years ago; some toured in mobile exhibits until finally settling down as the centerpieces of health museums. Transparent men, on the other hand, are hard to find (the Mayo Clinic Museum displayed one before it closed down). This is probably because pregnancy makes for a more interesting story, and American educators, as always, are reluctant to expose kids to transparent glowing male genitalia.“

To find the transparent human nearest you, check out this exhaustive list provided by John W. Wong, MD.

UCLA’s Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI) “seeks to improve understanding of the brain in health and disease. The laboratory is dedicated to the development of scientific approaches for the comprehensive mapping of brain structure and function.”

“The LONI Scientific Visualization Group is a team of scientists, graphic artists, designers and programmers who use high-end equipment and software to produce a wide variety of animations and video for the Laboratory ” and their work allows “data to be shared in a more intuitive form for both scientific communication and educational purposes”.

[Thanks Mr. Cieciel]

The most recent collection of virtuoso pixel manipulation at worth1000.com; combining medical imagery and maniacal imagination. Some subtle (Hand of God, 6 Fingers), some a little less so (1+1= ummm…, Alien). It looks like you can have these graphics printed on any number of useful lifestyle accessories (t-shirts, posters, mousepads, prints, coffee mugs, puzzles, clocks, key tags, magnets, murals, postcards, coasters).

[via medicmom]

Constructions, installations and visuals involving and exploring concepts of cognition, technology, neurology, physiology, anatomy, pharmacology…

I especially like Spike, Honey and Residual Memory.

From the artist’s statement:

“In attempts to understand thinking, I have:

made maps of various nervous systems, practiced art while under hypnosis, designed an artificial intelligence to read my tarot, read for hours to fish, conducted biochemical experiments on myself and others, executed medical illustrations in black velvet, worked on cognitive research projects, documented dissections of humans, dissected machines and failed to put most of them back together, freely made up vocabulary as needed, removed my teeth to model information systems, self-induced phobias concerning consciousness in the plant kingdom, donated my body to science and then requested it be returned, observed nerve development in vivo, choreographed synaptic responses, translated EEGs into music, conducted a cartesian exorcism on myself, and attempted to create cognitive models of my own severely confused state.

The intersection of art and neurology, theories of memory, mental illness and cognition form the groundwork for my thoughts.“

“Images from the preprohibition era when many psychotropic substances were legally available in America and Europe.

Many of the substances prohibited today were legally available in the past. This small exposition contains samples of the many psychoactive medicines widely available during the late-19th century through the mid-20th century. Some of the pictures are oversized to improve legibility. Additional photographs are available for some products in the author’s private collection.“

From the Addiction Research Unit of the Department of Psychology at University at Buffalo.

[via Dublog]