The new imaging technology is called Plato's CAVE.

Dr. Brian Butler is a cancer specialist at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. He is also the lead creator of CAVE.

"Computer engineers and video gamers really propelled this type of technology into a possibility."

Complex images??

CAVE turns information from other medical imaging machines -- such as CT, MRI and PET scanners – into complex pictures of the human body.

CAVE images look like video game graphics: they appear almost real. And, doctors can play with CAVE images. They can touch the video screen to make the images turn, grow, shrink or change direction.

Precision?

Mas Takashima is a doctor who uses Plato's CAVE. He says the technology is important because it helps doctors imagine operations in advance.

"When you have the data so you can then visualize exactly what's going on, it definitely decreases the stress level or the anxiety level of just wondering, 'oh, is there a possibility that that blood vessel might be, you know, wrapped around this tumor?'"

Recently, doctors used CAVE technology to plan a difficult operation. Their patient had accidentally shot himself with an arrow. The doctors could see where the arrow had entered the man's head. They also could see how close it was to critical blood vessels.

Medical images are a relatively new field. But CAVE is an important development. And it is just the beginning, experts say. As technology changes, medical images will only improve.

This story was based on a report by George Putic. It was written for Learning English by Kelly Jean Kelly.

聲明：音視頻均來自互聯(lián)網鏈接，僅供學習使用。本網站自身不存儲、控制、修改被鏈接的內容。“滬江英語”高度重視知識產權保護。當如發(fā)現(xiàn)本網站發(fā)布的信息包含有侵犯其著作權的鏈接內容時，請聯(lián)系我們，我們將依法采取措施移除相關內容或屏蔽相關鏈接。