3D avatars help Alzheimer and plastic surgery patients

A couple of years ago people thought of avatars as the picture people see in chat rooms or in social networks. Avatars are images or graphical representations that usually represent a human. 3D avatars are very new and they differ from normal avatars because in 3D avatars you can rotate the image on all directions so that you can get a 360 degree view of the image. Due to this possibility of viewing the image from any imaginable angle has led researchers to discover many new applications for this technology.

Until recent years 3D avatars were designed for kids and learning applications but the Media Unit at TCNALIA have set the goal to produce a "Personalized 3D avatars" technology with low costs so that more people can benefit from it.

3D avatars are obtained with the help of high-quality 3D laser scanners and 2D photographs. Researchers hope that this new technology will help users interact in a new way with computers. Researchers have found that this new technology could be very helpful in Alzheimer's disease and plastic surgery so they developed two systems specially designed for this two fields, one is called MODELVIR and it is used for cosmetic surgery while the other one is called ALZHERAPY.

MODELVIR or Virtual Modeling has many applications in many fields of cosmetic surgery such as plastic surgery, repair surgery. Doctors can achieve high quality 3D avatar of the patient. They then use this avatar to show patients how they would look after their desired operation, they can manipulate the avatar in any manner they want offering their clients the end results of the surgery even before it begins. This tool can save patients from bitter disappointment if the end results do not match their expectations.

The second application of this new technology is designed to provide doctors with a fast diagnosis for this disease. Apart from this benefit, 3D avatars can monitor the patient in a friendly manner. The patient can choose the appearance of the avatar to his or hers preferences. It can also pin point the exact the location of the patient at any time in case the patient decides to go out.

Add comment January 27th, 2006