Monday, February 3, 2003

Interactive Media

Mummy makeover

By Patricia Resende

The question of what a mummified corpse looked like when it was alive will no longer be a mystery, thanks to the Museum of Science and 3-D technology developed by SensAble Technologies of Woburn.

Late last week the museum unveiled the virtual sculpture of an Egyptian mummy being presented at the Museum of Science's Current Science & Technology Center.

The Museum of Science executives called on the Boston Police Department's forensic artist and SensAble Technologies to use futuristic crime scene techniques and advanced 3-D technology to create a facial model of the mummy.

Before calling on the BPD and SensAble, the museum looked for help from the medical community.

The MOS worked with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to take computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans of the mummy to reveal some information about the corpse.

"We did the CAT scan and found out gender, approximate age and other juicy details," said David Rabkin, vice president for technologies at the museum.

The mummy's CAT scans revealed that the individual was 5' 6", a male, and was Caucasian or Nubian and died in his mid- to late 20s.

"One of the surprises inside-was that this mummy had a bit of jumbled bones, some of which were broken," Rabkin said. "On the outside he looks pretty, but on the inside it was not as pretty as you would like."

The CAT scans helped determine some of the analysis of the body, but it was up to the forensic artist to figure out the rest.

Rather than use a clay model to form the face of the mummy, the Boston Police Department used SensAble's FreeForm technology to build a virtual model.

The FreeForm modeling system enables customers to develop products from concept to finished product by moving from a traditional, physical model-making process to a digital one. The BPD also used SensAble's Phantom product, a pen-like stylus to do the model.

Companies such as Hasbro, Nike, Hallmark, and Gillette use the FreeForm modeling system for the 3-D product design and development process.

"Right off the bat, Greg Mahoney, BPD's forensic artist, wanted to use FreeForm because it's a virtual model instead of using a clay one," Rabkin said.

Using the technology was significant because "the mummy is a piece of art that you don't want to disturb, but you still want to learn more about," Rabkin added.

Said Mahoney, the BPD forensic artist, "It's taking existing technology and switching it to a new technology. The good thing about this is I didn't have to touch the skull."

Said Tom Ellery, vice president of sales at SensAble, "What they will do is recreate (likenesses) through a series of scanned information. They will take the exterior part of the mummy into the FreeForm system and then the forensic experts recreate what the mummy or person would look like.

"What they are trying to do is create the closest (rendition) of what that individual looked like at that time," he added. "You'll have a lot more accurate picture of what that person looked like (using this technology)."

He said the technology is also used in investigations.

"When they find a set of bones or decomposed body they want to recreate the face of that individual," he said. "For the Boston Police Department that is a critical thing."

Dr. Ann Marie Mires, forensic anthropologist for the commonwealth's office of the chief medical examiner, said SensAble's system points investigators in the right direction.

"All we are doing is adding this technology to look much deeper and ask more questions," Mires said.

To give the police department a challenge, the Museum also scanned the skull of a living individual and gave some information about the person dubbed "Patient X" to the police so that they could compare the findings and accuracy of both the mummy and Patient X.

"We are not aiming to get the exact right face, but the right model to figure out the investigation," Rabkin said. "Our goal is to express it in a way that the layperson can understand the limitations of the process and technology as they exist today."

At an event last week, "Patient X" was revealed to be Beth Israel radiologist Dr. Vassilios Rattotoulos.

"I just saw these photos (of the rendition by the BPD artist)," Rattotoulos said. "I think they did a great job. I think I was struck by the blue eyes because people in the Mediterranean tend to have brown eyes. If the eyes were brown, the (rendition) would be identical (to me)."

On a scale of 1-10, Rattotoulos said the artist's rendition would be an 8.

Along with its FreeForm product, SensAble's Phantom product is also being displayed at the museum.

"The Phantom is used where kids as well as the general public will have the ability to explore, in a 3-D computer environment, things that are difficult to explain generally," Ellery said. "How do you explain inertia?" he asked. "The Phantom allows a kid to feel what inertia is like."