Researchers at The University of New South Wales in Australia, with the help of folks at Cleveland Clinic, Brown and Stanford Universities, and Zeiss, harnessed Google’s own algorithms to create essentially a “Google Maps” for the human anatomy. Just as with satellite imagery of the Earth, the technology relies on imaging done at different resolutions and fields of view, capturing the overall view and at various steps getting down to the level of individual cells. The tool looks and works like Google Maps, letting users pan and zoom just like we’re all already used to, but it reminds us of the 70’s movie Powers of Ten that demonstrates how the world looks like when viewed at different levels of magnifications.
Currently, the technology is being used to study osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, specifically focusing on the human hip with those conditions. But that is just a start, and the main task lies ahead, requiring massive amounts of imaging and data to create comprehensive maps of our anatomy.
You can try the technology yourself at this link…
Here’s a short video with the scientists behind the project talking about what led them to work on it:
Source: UNSW…