NEUROANATOMY WORKSTATION AND KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING

THIS PROJECT WILL EXPLORE THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ADVANCED, LOW-COST COMPUTER SYSTEM, BASED ON A VIRTUAL-MEMORY INTEL 80386 PROCESSOR, FOR IMAGE ANALYSIS, GRAPHICAL DATA STORAGE, AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION THAT WILL BE USED AS A NEUROANATOMICAL WORKSTATION. THE STATION WILL INCLUDE PROVISIONS FOR DATA INPUT FROM A DIGITIZING TABLET, COMPUTER MICROSCOPY USING A LIGHT MICROSCOPE WITH STEPPER MOTOR STAGE, AND AUTORADIOGRAPHY ANALYSIS WITH A VIDEO CAMERA AND LIGHT BOX. A MODELING AND RECONSTRUCTION PACKAGEWILL FEATURE SOLID-BODY GRAPHICAL IMAGING, AND A STANDARDIZED DATABASE FORMAT WILL PROMOTE DATA ARCHIVING AND EXCHANGE AMONG A COMMUNITY OF USERS. THE AIMS OF THIS PROJECT ARE: (1) TO PUT EXISTING SOFTWARE AND TEST CAPABILITIES ON A 80386-BASED SYSTEM, (2) TO DESIGNFUTURE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR A "NEUROANATOMIST'S NOTEBOOK," AND (3) TO EXAMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF APPLYING ADVANCED SYSTEM FEATURES AND KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION TECHNIQUES FOR LATER DEVELOPMENT IN PHASE II.