For those of you who miss playing Operation and want to take the game to the next level, may I present the Virtual Autopsy Table. Built more like a steamer trunk, the VAT allows you to use a multi-touch screen to explore a 3D virtual human body layer by layer. Developed in Sweden by the Noorkoping Visualization Center and the Center for Medical Image Sciences and Visualization, the body on display was painstakingly created using the latest in high resolution MRI scans. There’s nowhere in the body you can’t examine with a few flips of your hand across the screen. It’s just like a real autopsy, only without all the goo. Check out the cool demonstration video after the break.

The virtual exploration of the body is a great educational tool for students and professionals. We’ve seen a similar 3D experience with Visible Body’s online model. One day, the VAT could be an integral part of medical school, or even see use in museums across the world. The multi-touch screen is an intuitive way to access the information contained in the VAT, demonstrating how touchscreen technology is at the forefront of the new human-machine interface paradigm.
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