M. Claypool, J. Riedl, J. Carlis, G. Wilcox, R. Elde,
E. Retzel, A. Georgeopolous, J. Pardo, K. Ugurbil, B. Miller, C. Honda
University of Minnesota
Medical School and Computer Science Department
June 29, 1996
In laboratories around the world, neuroscientists from diverse
disciplines are exploring various aspects of brain structure. Because
of the size of the domain, neuroscientists must specialize, making it
difficult to fit results together and causing some research efforts to
be duplicated because of lack of sharing of information. We have
begun a long-term project to build a neuroscience research database
for brain structure. One aspect of the database is the ability to
visualize high-quality, high-resolution micro-graphs montaged together
into three-dimensional structures as they were in the living brain.
As demonstrated in this paper's analysis, realistic presentation of
these visualizations across computer networks will stress current and
proposed gigabit networks. Image compression can reduce network
loads, but wide-spread use of the visualizations will still require
networks capable of sustaining terabits/second of throughput.