You may remember 3D scanning enthusiasts from Bulgaria, Threeding, who created an online database of 3D models that can be downloaded for free, bought or printed out using the company’s printing service. Recently we wrote about how Threeding was digitizing artifacts from Bulgaria’s National Museum of Military History. Now the online database, which mostly consists of 3D models of art and design pieces, has been expanded with a set of human anatomical models with a view to helping out doctors, medical students and anyone interested in the human body.
“We are excited to use Threeding’s new models,” says Isaac Cohen, an anatomy expert. “Previously, we were ordering expensive models from large anatomy model suppliers but now we can use the 3D printer we have at our lab. That will save us research budget which we can use for other purposes.”
So far Threeding’s gallery of fully textured anatomical models features 37 body parts, including a scapula, hand and foot bones, a pelvis, a backbone, a sacrum and parts of the brain, all created with Artec 3D scanners. Each one is available for printing in 6 materials and more than 40 colors, and more models are expected to be uploaded to the gallery over the next weeks.
With a background in computer games and a love for building cars, it didn’t take long for Chris Ashton to find his way into the 3D scanning world, combining both profession and passion.
With the high-resolution 3D scans of hundreds of thylacine specimens, the research team veraciously measured each specimen, and then used the 3D scans of full thylacine skeletons to digitally sculpt a lifelike 3D model of a thylacine for digital weighing.
Back in the 1500s, the citizens and members of Mantua’s Jewish community couldn’t even imagine that their descendants would one day not merely be able to see their community’s signature artifact all in one piece, even after 500 years, but also be able to explore it up close in 360 degrees without even leaving their homes.