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Essential Anatomy is the future of touch-based anatomy learning
If you've read a lot of my articles over the years you may have picked up that I'm a bit of a human anatomy buff. Yeah, that sounds weird, I know. Some people like understanding their cars and computers better, I like understanding my body. And it's thanks to the iPad that the study of human anatomy has never been easier, or more interactive. There are several nice anatomy apps available for the iPad, but I've been testing one for the last few weeks that makes its predecessors feel as cold and dead as a cadaver. That app is Essential Anatomy by 3D4Medical. I've written about 3D4Medical's apps before. The company was groundbreaking from the start. I even predicted that it was so revolutionary that one of its apps would appear in an Apple commercial. And then it did. However, no matter how good their previous apps were, 3d4Medical's new Essential Anatomy app surpasses them in every way possible. That's because the company spent the last 18 months building a proprietary graphics engine designed specifically for the iPad. The graphics engine enables real-time rendering of the most highly detailed 3D anatomy structures ever seen on a tablet. Using the app on my fourth generation iPad, I'm able to interact with the anatomic structure with zero rendering or lag time. Fading or hiding certain muscles or other structures happens instantaneously. And the details of the structures themselves will blow you away. Besides the new graphics engine and completely new 3D structures, Essential Anatomy offers correct audio pronunciation for every structure in the model, 3D models of most major systems (including muscles, nerves, arteries and veins), an incredibly easy-to-navigate -- yet comprehensive -- UI, and a number of learning features including Latin nomenclature for each anatomic structure, quizzes, the ability to take notes and a number of sharing options. Like their previous apps, Essential Anatomy is an app every doctor, physiotherapist, OT, nurse and medical student should own. I'm also certain it's an app that will soon be required material at medical schools. Using the scalpel tool users can easily remove muscles individually or layer-by-layer and turn on or off arterial, venous and nervous systems. The touch-based navigation and zooming features allow users to see anatomical structures from any angle they want. Make no mistake about it: Essential Anatomy by 3D4Medical is the future of touch-based anatomy learning. The app itself won't be live in the App Store until tomorrow. Until then you can check out the gallery below. Essential Anatomy will cost US$29.99 and is compatible with the iPad 2 or later. It also requires iOS 6 or later. Once it goes live, you'll be able to download it here. %Gallery-178751%
Daily Mac App: Muscle System Pro II
Back in March I raved about 3D 4 Medical's Muscle System Pro II iPad app. It's a photo-realistic 3D atlas of the human body that allows the user to navigate through layers of muscles with the touch of their finger. The app is so good it's found a foothold among must-have apps at medical school across the country. For those of you who work or study in the medical fields, or just have an interest in anatomy, I'm happy to say that 3D 4 Medical has now brought Muscle System Pro II to the Mac. Like its iPad brother, Muscle System Pro II for Mac allows users to look up 433 of the major muscles in the human body. Users can tap on a muscle's pin to get more information about the muscle, such as its origin, insertion, and action. Particularly helpful for students is that the app allows you to insert your own pins into a muscle and make your own notes for each individual muscle. The app also offers an interactive quiz which tests the user's knowledge of muscular anatomy. If you're a fan of the iPad app, be sure to check out the Mac version. The 3D models look absolutely amazing on a 27 inch iMac display and its just nice to be able to access a powerful research and study tool on any device of your choice. Muscle System Pro II for Mac is US$19.99 in the Mac App Store. For users interested in anatomy, 3D 4 Medical has also brought some of their other iPad apps to the Mac platform, including Skeletal System Pro II, Brain Pro, and Heart Pro. %Gallery-138704%
Kinect has no qualms about guessing a woman's age
Did you know that Microsoft's Kinect can measure your bodily proportions in 3D and hence ontogenetically estimate your age? Well grandma, it can. Aside from being incredibly impolite, a recent patent application from Redmond also highlights a more beneficial function: to prevent kids from watching or playing age-restricted media. The proposed system could even shut down inappropriate material automatically when an offending minor steps in the room and then resume it when they leave. On the other hand, we give it five minutes before some scheming rugrat with a distorting lens tweets a workaround.
