State-of-the-art analysis: Tekniska Museet's Virtual Autopsy Table

The Virtual Autopsy Table at The National Museum of Science and Technology

There is an interactive installment at Tekniska Museet which allows a user through a multi-touch screen to see and interact with the inside of a body in different layers. A cool thing to notice is that the visible body is not a 3D model since the datasets shown is imported straight from a real scanned human being and it has not been edited or modified.

Anyways, the user can choose which layer to operate on. This makes it possible to look inside the volume and focus on details, such as: the brain, skeleton, heart, skin, muscles and bloodflow. The user can also cut through the body using a virtual knife, making it possible to see even more specific details.

I think that there are several targeted utsers for this activity. First of all for kids and students, to make them explore something fun, interesting and educational at the same time, so that they’ll learn something and might grow an interest in the field. Secondly, it targets anyone related to any field of the human body structure. This is a brilliant invention and it is actually used as a compliment to the conventional autopsy by medical experts and also used in other countries where autopsies are not allowed because of cultural reasons.

One problem that I think might occur while having this installment available in the Museum is that it will build a long queue of kids or people wanting to use it, since only one user at a time can play with it. This is of course assuming that they only have one installment at the entire facility. This will bore people who’ve been waiting too long and at the same time destroy other peoples experience by giving up their hope of using it because of the line. It’s like going to the eiffel tower only to realize that the queue going up to the tower will take at least 3 hours to complete.

Another problem is that the multi-touch surface will possibly be covered with bacteria due to the amount of fingertips and hands that has touched it. Wise would it be to have some disinfectant available beside the installment.