Back on 39 News. We've all seen x-rays before. They're 2D and black
and white, right?
Well, now there's a new way to get a look inside
the human body in 3D. The brand new
technology is taking off right here in
Houston. Here's a look in tonight's
39 Interactive.
>>Let's actually see if we can track...
>>...Ooh, that there!
>>It's the little vessels.
Walk into a small, dark room in the med center,
>
> and
you can virtually walk into the body
of someone else.
> Exciting and groundbreaking,
and it's all been developed at Methodist
Hospital. They call this visualization
center "Plato's Cave."
Named after that famous philosopher and
a story about a better way to see things.
> and no
one has seen the human body like this before.
A 3D image! Yes, you wear glasses
projected from a multi-touch table.
You are looking at a basic CT scan
image that has been made into a life-like map of your body
>>Let's see if there's any obstruction.
>>There's actually a tissue layer there.
Think about it. Before this, the only way to get an image of your inside was
this black and white
2D slice of what ales you. 
But Dr. E. Brian Butler had an idea.
Think of each CT image as if it were a
slice of bread. >>But what if you took that,
all that stack of slices and stacked them on top of each other
to create a 3-Dimensional picture?>> He's saying, just like you can stack slices of bread, 
you can stack CT images. And with this technology, 
create these images.
Images like a 3D tour right through your colon. >>There's a polyp right there, see?>>
It's kind of like that old movie
"Fantastic Voyage," where scientists were
miniaturized.
>>For you are going where no man or camera has ventured before.>>
But this is real science, and not fiction.
It can be a great teaching tool to med students, but it also 
creates a more detailed road map for
surgery. >>I've already been able to open the 
patient's body through this type of device,
and uh, sort of do what we call a pre-flight simulation,
surgical simulation.>> All of this is
possible because Dr. Butler and
others realized one thing. >>All of a sudden
graphics cards have gotten very, very
fast.>> The graphics cards he is talking about 
are the same ones found in video games.
Just like video game designers create
virtual worlds,
this system uses the same principles.
So, gamers help develop this system, so you're probably not going to be surprised
when you find out
what ended up in here.
An Xbox controller.
Why use a computer mouse when you could
use something like this?
>>The interesting thing is is when you
start looking at new tools,
you look at something outside of the box.>>
In this case, the box is the Xbox.
The control allows you to move the
images 360 degrees.
The game of life? Never seen before. >>Best
way to remove a tumor...>>
Plato's Cave at Methodist Hospital, a new view of you. >>This is under your chest...>>
With 39 Interactive, I'm Steve Simon.
