The Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli (Bologna, Italy)
coordinates an international effort called The
Living Human Project (LHP). This international
initiative aims to develop a worldwide,
distributed repository of anatomo-functional data
and of simulation algorithms, fully integrated
into a seamless simulation environment and
directly accessible by any researcher in the
world. This will establish Europe as the leader
in the area of human functional modelling,
directly challenging the USA Visible Human
Project and related initiatives.
http://www.livinghuman.org/

A fundamental component of the LHP is the
so-called Living Human Digital Library, an ICT
infrastructure that is being developed by a
consortium of European institutions as part of
the EC-funded LHDL project that is coordinated by
the CINECA Supercomputing Centre, also located in
Bologna, Italy. In addition to CINECA and the
Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli, the consortium sees
the participation of the Université Libre de
Bruxelles, of the University of Bedfordshire, and
of the Open University.

Today the LHDL Consortium jointly announced the
first prototype release of the Living Human
Digital Library. THE LHDL user can download the
release Alpha1 of LHPBuilder, a PC software that
allows researchers to import any digital dataset,
including medical imaging, motion capture and
simulation results datasets, elaborate and fuse
these data into coherent sets, interactively
visualise them, and then save them into a single
data archive.
http://www.biomedtown.org/biomed_town/LHDL/users/swclient/

These data archives can then be uploaded to the
LHDL using the library portal, hosted by the
Biomed Town Internet community. Each authorised
user will have his or her own storage space, that
can contain all the data archives that he or she
wants to share with the rest of the research
community.
http://www.biomedtown.org/biomed_town/LHDL/users/repository/

The first prototype of the Living Human digital
library does not allow the user to define an
access policy for her data. This means that any
other user with access rights can download every
dataset loaded onto LHDL. Because of this in the
present initial phase we shall be forced to grant
access only to those groups that intend to deploy
on the library a collection of data worth roughly
the equivalent of the data that the LHDL partners
plan to deploy. In the definitions and
documentation room you will find more details on
LHDL, its development plans, and on how to submit
an application to be come a member of the users
group.
http://www.biomedtown.org/biomed_town/LHDL/Reception/lhpdef/FrontPage/

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MARCO VICECONTI, PhD (viceconti@tecno.ior.it)
Laboratorio di Tecnologia Medica tel. 39-051-6366865
Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli fax. 39-051-6366863
via di barbiano 1/10, 40136 - Bologna, Italy

Tiger! Tiger! Burning bright in the forest of the night,
what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?
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Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of my employer