Extracting Three Dimensional Surface Model of Human Kidney from the Visible Human Data Set using Free Software

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how to create a 3D surface model of a human kidney using free software and publicly available data, providing a cost-effective alternative for surgical simulation models.

Contribution

The paper presents a method to generate a 3D kidney model from the Visible Human Data Set using free software tools, avoiding expensive commercial solutions.

Findings

Successfully reconstructed a 3D kidney model from public data

Used free software packages ImageJ, ITK-SNAP, and MeshLab

Provided a cost-free approach for surgical simulation models

Abstract

Three dimensional digital model of a representative human kidney is needed for a surgical simulator that is capable of simulating a laparoscopic surgery involving kidney. Buying a three dimensional computer model of a representative human kidney, or reconstructing a human kidney from an image sequence using commercial software, both involve (sometimes significant amount of) money. In this paper, author has shown that one can obtain a three dimensional surface model of human kidney by making use of images from the Visible Human Data Set and a few free software packages (ImageJ, ITK-SNAP, and MeshLab in particular). Images from the Visible Human Data Set, and the software packages used here, both do not cost anything. Hence, the practice of extracting the geometry of a representative human kidney for free, as illustrated in the present work, could be a free alternative to the use of expensive commercial software or to the purchase of a digital model.