Two vertical stripes of bright, white light scan across a young boy's face in the darkened room. The reflected light is recorded by a rotating camera hovering three feet above the subject.
The scene is not the latest twist in the X-Files or Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's part of a research project involving the computer science department at NUI Maynooth and the Children's Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin.
The 3-D Shape Measurement and Analysis Project creates three-dimensional records of reconstructive facial surgery. These before and after images allow assessment of surgical procedures by viewing the precise measurements, contours and colour variations of a patient's face.
Since many of these operations involve congenital defects, such as hare-lip, they take place when patients are children. Therefore, longterm assessment of facial bone and tissue growth is essential for predicting successful surgical methods.
"The ability to automatically and objectively collect information as to the success of medical procedures such as these is an essential part of improving the quality of medical services in this country," says Mr Stephen Brown, lecturer in computer science at NUI Maynooth.
In the past, colour photographs, plaster moulds, CAT scans and MRIs were used but provided an imprecise record.
This system is deemed more effective and user-friendly because of its portability, reduced risk to the patient and use of white-light illumination, which aids in colour documentation.
"It's been very exciting and rewarding to have collaboration between computer science researchers and medical practitioners in this country and this has lead to the success of the project," says Mr Brown.
The shape analysis research is funded by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Science and Technology Agency, under the National Programme in Advanced Technology in Software.
A SECOND research project involving patient records, "Synapses", aims to "enable health-care professionals to share electronic patient records and related medical data wherever they are and in whatever system they are held," according to its promoters. This may sound easy but in practice obtaining medical records when they are in different systems, computer programs, languages and countries is a major headache for most health-care administrators and practitioners.
Those with chronic illnesses, like diabetes or cancer, often require shared care or the care of more than one professional or institution.
"Synapses" draws together all the patient's information regardless of its source. This allows health professionals a detailed overview of a patient's care to date. Items accessed may include anything from treatment records, lab tests, pharmacy records and X-rays to doctor's comments.
"It's software using agreed international standards and it wraps the patient information into a standard form using object-oriented technology," says Dr Rory O'Moore from St James's Hospital. St James's is one of four Irish research partners involved in the project.
This technology allows files to be read regardless of the software or system in which it was created. An additional feature of "Synapses" is its ability to allow each medical record system to maintain its own integrity and provide for legal, ethical and security requirements.
"Synapses" was developed with the support of the Telematics Applications Programme of the European Commission.
The four Irish organisations involved in the project are Trinity College, Dublin, St James's Hospital, Dublin Institute of Technology and Decision Support Systems. Other participants include hospitals, universities, research facilities and industry in other EU membercountries.
The final product will be a set of software specifications available in the public domain by the end of this year. Some of the industrial partners are expected to exploit these in time.
Both projects have website addresses. The 3-D Project is at http://www.cs.may.ie/reseach/computer-vision/shape.html and "Synapses" at http://www.cs.tcd.ie/synapses/public