This proposal seeks funds to develop a 3D Reconstruction Center in the School of Science and the School of Medicine at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis. This facility will serve three primary functions: 1) support and extend several on- going research projects in the Department of Biology and Anatomy, 2) provide the computer tools through which interaction among faculty will be enhanced, and 3) allow the researchers in Indianapolis to participate in the developing and testing of 3D reconstruction software with their colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle. Many investigations in the life sciences would benefit from the ability to create three dimensional models of their objects of study. These models are necessary for the understanding of the interrelationships among the parts which comprise the whole. The mathematics of applied geometry are well-known, but are computational intensive. The latest generation of microcomputers have become powerful enough to handle such computational problems. Our group is seeking the computer hardware, software, and necessary peripherals to record images of serial sections, enter those images into the computer, process the 2 dimensional images into 3 dimensional models that can be manipulated, dissected, explored and copied onto paper and slides. The benefits of funding this project are in an increase in productivity of a wide variety of investigations, enhanced understanding by other investigators through better presentation of research findings and cooperation in development of new algorithms to provides more powerful software for the life sciences.
