Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 13.11
MyCF browser screenshot on lower limbs
links between canonical descriptions of anatomical entities and reality-grounded in-
stances of such descriptions. These instances are parameterized, i.e. characterized in
terms of geometrical and physical attributes. A-priori anatomical knowledge can be
used to complete patient-specific content. The MyCF browser provides facilities of
searching and navigating through the database.
As an example, the Human Knee is modeled by two bones (femur and tibia) and
a ligament. Suppose that a user needs to reconstruct a specific model, starting from
the models of the femur and of the tibia. To do so, the user needs to know where to
insert the extremities of the ligament on the bones. If the parameter corresponding
to that position is stored in the database, the user just has to request that attribute, i.e.
the position. If the value is unknown, it is possible to set manually a specific value or
use a canonical one. In this way, bridging between canonical and specific knowledge
is achieved: canonical knowledge is used to model the patient-specific information
in absence of specific data.
13.4 Discussion and Future Perspectives
In each of the state-of-the-art solutions we presented it is possible to ask the following
question: which of the two approaches (visual and linguistic) has priority over the
other?
