Multimodal visualization interface for data management, self-learning and data presentation

Multimodal fusion of biomedical data at different temporal and dimensional scales

The introduction of integrative approaches to biomedical research (integrative biology, physiome, Virtual Physiological Human, etc.) poses original problems to computer aided medicine: the need to operate with large amounts of data that are strongly heterogeneous in structure, format and even in the knowledge domain that generated them; the need to integrate all of these data into a coherent whole; the further complication imposed by the fact that more and more frequently these data are captured at very different dimensional and/or temporal scales. The present study describes a first attempt at providing an interactive visualisation environment for homogeneous biomedical data defined over radically different spatial or temporal scales. In particular, we describe new strategies for the management of the dimensional information of highly heterogeneous data types; the management of temporal multiscaling; for 3D unstructured spatial multiscale visualisation and the related interaction paradigms and user interface. Preliminary results with a prototype implementation based on the OpenMAF application framework (http://www.openmaf.org) indicate that it is possible to develop effective environments for interactive visualisation of multiscale biomedical data.

Multimod Data Manager: a tool for data fusion

Nowadays biomedical engineers regularly have to combine data from multiple medical imaging modalities, biomedical measurements and computer simulations and this can demand the knowledge of many specialised software tools. Acquiring this knowledge to the depth necessary to perform the various tasks can require considerable time and thus divert the researcher from addressing the actual biomedical problems. The aim of the present study is to describe a new application called the Multimod Data Manager, distributed as a freeware, which provides the end user with a fully integrated environment for the fusion and manipulation of all biomedical data. The Multimod Data Manager is generated using a software application framework, called the Multimod Application Framework, which is specifically designed to support the rapid development of computer aided medicine applications. To understand the general logic of the Data Manager, we first introduce the framework from which it is derived. We then illustrate its use by an example--the development of a complete subject-specific musculo-skeletal model of the lower limb from the Visible Human medical imaging data to be used for predicting the stresses in the skeleton during gait. While the Data Manager is clearly still only at the prototype stage, we believe that it is already capable of being used to solve a large number of problems common to many biomedical engineering activities.