REGA, E.A.: The “dynamic digital human” in research, entertainment and education

The demand for human anatomical material in teaching at the undergraduate and professional school level is enormous, as attested to by the sheer volume of (expensive) textbooks, manuals and study aids on the market and the number of academic positions whose primary teaching responsibilities involve medical and allied health students. There exists a widespread misperception by many academics that human anatomy consists simply of rote memorization; in truth, assisting students in coming to terms with the complexities of human morphology and movement in three dimensions continues to present the greatest challenge for medical educators. Advances in computer graphic capabilites in recent years should have revolutionised anatomical teaching by allowing students to view and manipulate quasi three-dimensional digital humans. However, existing anatomical software suffers from curious and pronounced limitations arising from a typological and inherently two-dimensional pedagogical approach. Despite the need, the development of new software is limited by a cost of development which exceeds typical academic resources. In this regard, the vast resources of the entertainment industry can benefit educators. In consultation with academics and medical professionals, Sony Imageworks created a dynamic digital human (and gorilla) as part of the computer graphics effects for the Sony film Hollow Man. This material represents one of the closest digital approximations of human musculo-skeletal morphology and dynamics to date, and will be a resource for teaching (and indeed research) applications when fully developed for the educational domain.