Over the past decade, there have been significant advances in the field of Virtual Surgery. Simultaneously, the average desktop computer has come equipped with increasingly high powered graphic capabilities, at a steadily decreasing cost. These two developments have created a tremendous potential for high fidelity desktop simulation. Computer simulation can be a powerful tool for giving students a rich learning experience in an environment whose real world counterpart would be prohibitive in terms of safety, cost, or practicality (or moral objection in some cases). Virtual dissection is an area that is particularly amenable to simulation, as the modern commodity desktop computer is more than adequate for presenting realistic models to the student. To date, however, all attempts at desktop virtual dissection have been comprised of either rudimentary visualizations with no interactivity, sophisticated multimedia presentations that include pictures, animations, and diagrams, pre-determined decision paths that allow a limited interaction at best, or some combination of these. We propose to develop a virtual dissection platform that takes the algorithms and techniques of the virtual surgery realm, and applies them to desktop virtual dissection, giving the student the ability to cut, probe, and excise tissue and organs and record and review their work.
