CAVEman: The World’s First 4D Virtual Human

The world’s very first 4D Virtual Reality Human has been dubbed the “CAVEman” and resides in the CAVE, a cube-shaped virtual reality room, also known as the “research Holodeck”. The 4D human model floats in space, projected from three walls and the floor below.

The CAVEman is eerily like-like, and is meant to provide researchers and scientists a revolutionary new tool in planning surgeries and to help medical researchers investigate the genetics of various diseases, among other applications. The hologram can be sized to any scale, and aside from displaying the entire human body, can also display only specific, selected parts.

“Six years ago, we gathered a team of computer scientists, biologists, mathematicians, and artists,” says Christoph Sensen, PhD, director of the Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine. “Our goal was to build a model of a complete human, at 10 times the resolution of anything else on the market. I am proud to say today, we have reached that goal.”

Posted by Rebecca Sato

* This post is adapted from a news release issued by the University of Calgary.