Sandy Ressler, Information Access Division, held a workshop on Open 3D Standards and Interoperability for the medical imaging community at the 13th Annual Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) Conference in California during the last week of January. MMVR is the premier forum for computer scientists and physicians who develop, refine, and promote advanced, data-centered tools for clinical care and medical education. MMVR helps stimulate interdisciplinary networking and collaboration for improved research, validation, and commercialization. This well-attended workshop included participants from the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the Army, the major U.S. funding source of medical simulation systems research. Other participants included Stanford, University of Washington, Duke University, and the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization. This workshop highlighted the work of the Medical Working Group of the Web3D Consortium, which Ressler chairs, and is beginning to build consensus on the value and utility of open 3D standards. MedX3D, the evolving extension to the X3D (Extensible 3D) standard, will allow volumetric imaging for medical applications to be part of X3D and will be the key deliverable from this work.

Contact: Sandy Ressler, ext. 3549