UBC contributes to a 4-dimensional model of the human body that may become the most detailed anatomical drawing yet
First and foremost, the Parametric Human Project is a group effort. The project brings together an international team of scientists to create a dynamic digital human model but the collaboration goes deeper than that. The goal of the project is to create a human model that incorporates our collective variability by including as many diverse, human samples as possible. This very important step advances medicine and biomedical engineering and industrial design research. In the past, we have relied on models built-up from animal-based research and human samples of small homogeneous groups. Now, with advanced algorithms and increased computing power, digital models could fully represent human diversity.
The Parametric Human Project has an academic centre here at UBC led by ECE Professor Dr. Sid Fels, a centre at the University of Toronto led by Dr. Anne Agur with its industrial partner Autodesk Research led by Dr. Azam Khan. The Parametric Human Project has become a Canadian not-for-profit corporation with over 28 associated institutions. It was launched in 2012 as a multi-disciplinary, collaborative research initiative with Autodesk Research and Faro Technologies with the support of a 4-year NSERC-CRD grant. The project targets developing a full skeletal atlas and detailed models of the muscles associated with the arm, head, and neck that are then biomechanically activated through simulation technology, called ArtiSynth, created at UBC. The research team includes experts in anatomy, medical image processing, biomechanical modeling and simulation, as well as computer graphics and human computer interaction.
Professor Fels leads the creation of the modeling and simulation platform used in the Parametric Human project. ArtiSynth is a 3D modeling platform that is available for free under an open source license. ArtiSynth has been used to develop a variety of biomechanical models including: the upper airway, face and mouth, a muscle activated model of the face, a model of the foot, point-to-point muscle models of the arm and torso; and detailed models of fiber fields and tendon sheets. While targeted at biomechanical and biomedical applications, ArtiSynth can be can be used for any kind of mechanical simulation.
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