Goal-Directed Magnetic Resonance Brain Micro Imaging
 
The Human Brain Project
Caltech Division
 
 
General Information
Connectivity Project
Atlas Project
Algorithms Project
Project Images
 
 
 
Algorithms Project
The three individual Projects and four Cores revolve around the development, application, interpretation, and presentation of high resolution multidimensional images of the developing nervous system obtained on several model systems both in vitro and in vivo. The collaborators bring a number of different philosophies and types of expertise: computer graphics, modeling and control theory; mapping brain physiology/function and cortical learning; embryology, cell and molecular biology, and digital optical microscopy; microscopic resolution MRI. 

Goal-Based Algorithms for 3D Analysis and Visualization Project [Algorithms Project] 
Al Barr and David Laidlaw 

The goal of this Project is to develop and implement methods from computer graphics in order to extend the state of the art in data collection, modeling, analysis, and visualization of three-dimensional information about the developing brain. This project continues the development of teleological (i.e. "goal-based") methods that facilitate both the acquisition and analysis of multi-valued multi-dimensional MR and optical images. The intrinsically high density of information in these images points out the need for novel ways of looking at it and novel ways of making it publicly available. One of the major thrusts of this Project is the development, testing, and validation of new algorithms for the understanding of multi-valued multi-dimensional data sets. These involve: 

  • tools for tissue discrimination that will be essential for brain atlas annotation, 
  • hardware and software aimed at semi-immersive visualization, as well as 
  • whole new approaches to data rendering, such as "painterly" visualization where the essence of the image is emphasized and the nuances are retained. 
The dissemination of the annotated multi-valued multi-dimensional atlases of development presents a formidable challenge. Subsets of the visualized data will be distributed through normal publications and via the Web. More complete data sets will be distributed on CD-ROM with sophisticated visualization tools available through the Web.