Anatomy table PC build

Chronos5618 · March 10, 2015

Hi guys,

So, as some of you might know I am currently studying medicine in the UK. Recently, the university has invested in a couple of "Anatomage" tables to aid the learning of anatomy and surgery. Here is a link, so you can get an idea of what exactly what I am talking about-

http://www.anatomage.com/medical-products/anatomage-table

Now, each of these tables has cost the medical school tens of thousands of pounds...and I am not quite sure why. I admit that they are very useful and come with some amazing software, but the hardware does not seem to demand such a high price. They run Windows 7 (poorly), and despite what the demonstrators insist, the graphics rendering is not that intense.

So, as a summer project after exams I have plans of building my own. I'll put together a custom housing for it- I'm thinking maybe something with plenty of acrylic and a nice custom water-cooling loop to show off...or do a Linus and ghetto it completely. Sourcing the hardware shouldn't be a problem and to be honest I'll probably just start off with it running from my gaming rig as a proof of concept before shelling out on the hardware.

My main issue so far are the screens and a means of imparting touch-screen capability to them. The screen dimensions for the table at uni are 570mm x 2070mm with a resolution of 3840 x 1080, but that is actually 2 screens running together. While matching the dimensions is not vital, getting close would be nice, and the resolution shouldn't need to be anything greater than 1080p.

The other main factor is the fact that it is touchscreen. Obviously, such a large capacitive screen would be far too much money, so I was looking for suggestions as to how I might get a similar effect. Currently I'm pondering using something like the Leap motion or possibly the Kinect with a modified script. While not truly touch-screen, it would simulate the effect well enough.

At the moment, this idea is just in the planning stages but any suggestions or advice would be welcome (particularly on screens and touch-screen stuff). All being well, I'll start the build in a couple of months and put together a decent build-log while I do it.

Many thanks!