Anatomography is an interactive website which supports generating anatomical diagrams and animations of the human body. The Anatomography website is maintained by the DBCLS (Database Center for Life Science) non-profit research institute located at the University of Tokyo. Anatomical diagrams generated by Anatomography, and 3D polygon data used on the website (called BodyParts3D), are freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license.
Description Anatomography was launched on Feb. 9, 2009Release notes (in Japanese). DBCLS. Retrieved 2012-10-12. by founder and chief director , professor of the DNA Data Bank of Japan at the National Institute of Genetics.
Human body polygon data used in the site are called "BodyParts3D". BodyParts3D polygon data are extracted from full-body MRI images. The MRI image set that BodyParts3D is based on is called "TARO". Taro is a common given name for males in Japanese, as John is in English. TARO is a 2mm * 2mm * 2mm voxel dataset of the human male created by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. TARO was published freely in November, 2004.日本人の数値人体モデルDB「TARO」と「HANAKO」公開 2004/11/10 (in Japanese). ITMedia. Retrieved 2012-10-12.報道発表:日本人平均成人男女の数値人体モデルデータベース公開のお知らせ 2004-11-10 (in Japanese). National Institute of Information and Communications Technology. Retrieved 2012-10-12.
The construction process of BodyParts3D is as follows. Phase 1: Additional anatomical segmentations were introduced in the original TARO data. Phase 2: Then, missing details were supplemented and blurred contours were clarified using a 3D editing program by referring to textbooks, atlases,BodyParts3D Release Note (Release 3.0, 2011/6/20) DBCLS. Retrieved 2012-10-15. and mock-up models by medical illustrators. Phase 3: Further segmentation and data modification will continue in collaboration with clinical researchers until sufficient concept coverage is achieved.
BodyParts3D polygon data are distributed in the OBJ file format. The entire data file's size is 127 MB (polygon reduced) and 521 MB (high quality) as of version 3.0.Download - BodyParts3D DBCLS. Retrieved 2012-10-15. The number of body parts (organs) registered in BodyParts3D is 1,523 as of version 3.0.
License Images generated by Anatomography and the polygon data included in BodyParts3D are licensed under the Creative Commons license, in hope of widening usage and democratizing medical knowledge.
Funding The BodyParts3D/Anatomography project was funded by MEXT (Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) from FY2007 to FY2010.BodyParts3D Database Description Life Science Database Archive. Retrieved 2012-10-19.FAQ - About the Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS) DBCLS. Retrieved 2012-10-19. As of FY2011, the project has been funded by the JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency).
Reception Diagrams from Anatomography are used, for example, in Canadian science TV show Le code Chastenay,「LE CODE CHASTENAY」Emission 48 , 2010-01-19 aired Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, as lecture material in universities, and elsewhere to share knowledge.三橋 信孝、藤枝 香、今井 紫緒、武藤 勇、田村 卓郎、川本 祥子、高木 利久、大久保 公策 「BodyParts3DとAnatomography: 医学での情報共有を「動機付ける」素材」 シンポジウム「ライフサイエンスの未来へ～10年先のデータベースを考える～」/ Nobutaka Mitsuhashi, Kaori Fujieda, Shio Imai, Isamu Muto, Takuro Tamura, Shoko Kawamoto, Toshihisa Takagi and Kousaku Okubo "BodyParts3D and Anatomography: Materials motivating sharing information in medicine" Poster presentation at "Symposium: Toward the Future of Life Science - Thinking Databases of 10 Years Later" held in the University of Tokyo at 2010-10-05. Retrieved 2012-10-12. About usage of Anatomography on websites like Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, developers say "spreading of usages by anonymous users on like Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons is what we had expected."
Technical features BodyParts3D/Anatomography project uses the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA). The FMA is an open-source anatomical ontology developed and maintained by the Structural Informatics Group at the University of Washington. In BodyParts3D, each body-part is managed by an FMA identifier (FMAID) defined by the FMA. For example, the vertebral column is registered as , the temporal lobe is registered as FMA61825, and so on.
Version history Version 1.0 (Feb. 9, 2009) Version 2.0 (Apr. 28, 2010)"BodyParts3D/Anatomography" Updates Posted on April 28, 2010. DBCLS. Retrieved 2012-10-16. Total number of body parts is 1,324.BodyParts3D Release Note (Release 2.0, 2010/4/28) DBCLS. Retrieved 2012-10-15. Version 3.0 (Jun. 20, 2011) Total number of body parts is 1,523. Version 4.0 (May 16, 2013)"BodyParts3D Release Notes, v4.0". Retrieved 2015-11-18.
Similar services BioDigital Human - Free web service and commercial product provided by BioDigital, Inc. located in New York, New York, US. The BioDigital Human was published in 2011. The web site won a SXSW Interactive Award in 2013.
Others A few tutorial videos on using Anatomography are available on YouTube, see external links.
Additional images
See also Human anatomy Open science Open data Science Commons Democratization of knowledge
References
External links
Anatomography BodyParts3D polygon data
Database Center for Life Science