The seated man: geometry acquisition and three-dimensional reconstruction.

A three-dimensional (3D) virtual human body in seated position can be used in a wide range of applications such as basic or clinical research. A male cadaver placed in the driving position in a car cockpit was frozen. Strictly parallel 5 mm thickness serial sections were then performed. Both sides of the slices were photographed, scanned and analyzed by anatomists with software tools, in order to produce accurate contours of the identified anatomical structures. A 3D reconstruction of organs, based on the marching cubes method, was achieved except for thin structures. This allowed an anatomical validation of these reconstructed elements. The result of this work is a complete geometrical database of a seated human body in the driving position including skin, all bones, internal organs and main muscle groups.