SHELBYDOG
07-01-2009, 06:06 PM
'It's Amazing to See': Life-Size Models for Expectant Moms
Models Could Help Parents Bond With Babies, Cope With Abnormalities
By NICK WATT
July 1, 2009
Imagine that ultrasound of your unborn child. Now imagine it in 3-D. Now imagine it as a life-size model in the palm of your hand.
New technology enables moms and dads to bond with their baby before it's born.Soon that could be a reality for every expectant mother, thanks to a new scientific technique inspired by Brazilian designer Jorge Lopes. Using ultrasound images and MRI, Lopes can create a 3-D computer model of the fetus, and a layering printer does the rest. The process is called rapid prototyping, and the result is a life-size model of a fetus.
Lopes, 42, honed his skill modeling fossils and Egyptian mummies. Now he's gone from mummies to mommies.
His models are now part of an exhibition at London's Royal College of Art, where he's just earned a doctorate.
"I think we're at the beginning of a new science, really," said Stuart Campbell, who heads the obstetrics and gynecology department at King's College London. "It's the sort of technique that in the future could be done in a matter of hours. So that the couple could have a model in their hands in a few hours."
"You can see the facial expressions," Lopes said. "I was trying to find something very original in terms of medicine."
Lopes can create models at various points throughout a pregnancy and has also done models of twins.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7966629&page=1
Models Could Help Parents Bond With Babies, Cope With Abnormalities
By NICK WATT
July 1, 2009
Imagine that ultrasound of your unborn child. Now imagine it in 3-D. Now imagine it as a life-size model in the palm of your hand.
New technology enables moms and dads to bond with their baby before it's born.Soon that could be a reality for every expectant mother, thanks to a new scientific technique inspired by Brazilian designer Jorge Lopes. Using ultrasound images and MRI, Lopes can create a 3-D computer model of the fetus, and a layering printer does the rest. The process is called rapid prototyping, and the result is a life-size model of a fetus.
Lopes, 42, honed his skill modeling fossils and Egyptian mummies. Now he's gone from mummies to mommies.
His models are now part of an exhibition at London's Royal College of Art, where he's just earned a doctorate.
"I think we're at the beginning of a new science, really," said Stuart Campbell, who heads the obstetrics and gynecology department at King's College London. "It's the sort of technique that in the future could be done in a matter of hours. So that the couple could have a model in their hands in a few hours."
"You can see the facial expressions," Lopes said. "I was trying to find something very original in terms of medicine."
Lopes can create models at various points throughout a pregnancy and has also done models of twins.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7966629&page=1