Enhanced Virtual Family Models: Ella, Duke, Billie, Thelonious

The enhanced models from the Virtual Family Project with unprecedented anatomical detail and accuracy are now available to the scientific community through the IT'IS Foundation. The Virtual Family consists of four novel anatomical whole-body models:

• ELLA: 26-year-old female
• DUKE: 34-year-old male
• BILLIE: 11-year-old female
• THELONIOUS: 6-year-old male

High-resolution MR-imaging data were segmented to yield up to 84 different tissues and organs. The models were reconstructed as three-dimensional CAD objects with high fidelity anatomical detail. The CAD objects allow meshing of the models at arbitrary resolutions without loss of small features due to multiple sampling. They can be exported in a generic voxel-based format using the Virtual Family Tool. All four models and the Virtual Family Tool are provided free of charge to the scientific community for research purposes only.

The project was carried out in cooperation with the Center for Devices and Radiological Health of the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, the Hospital of the Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen, Germany, and Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen Germany. The Mobile Manufacturers Forum and the GSM Association supported the development of the original Virtual Family Models. SPEAG and the IT'IS Foundation sponsored the development of these newly released and beneficial enhancements that vastly improved the spatial resolution and the effectiveness of the CAD quality and handling.