The birth of a 3-D digitized human makes China the third country in the world boasting such technology and the related data on human body structure, Chinese researchers announced Wednesday.
The digitized human is a three-dimensional image made from a human body specimen. This is able to provide scientists and medical practitioners with basic data and an image of the human body structure.
Prof. Zhang Shaoxiang, a medical specialist and leader of the research program, said researchers had to acquire the complete data set of the human body structure to make the "man."
This was done by taking photos of cross sections of a 35-year-old Chinese man with a digital camera and putting the data into the computer. The computer then analyzed the data and produced a three-dimensional image.
Prof. Zhang said that their creation of the "man" involved 2,518 cross sections, with the thinnest slice at merely 0.1 millimeter.
The digitized "man" represents the outcome of three-year efforts of more than 20 researchers, Prof. Zhang said, noting that all of whom were from the Third Military Medical University based in Chongqing, a municipality in southwest China.
A digitized human is conducive to medical diagnosis and surgery, Zhang said, adding that they will publish the data set for researchers both at home and abroad.
Global research on having the digital ability to view the human body sprang up in the late 20th century. So far, the United States and the Republic of Korea have made their own digitized human.
(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2002)
