Actuality Systems Introduces First Spatial 3D Interventional Planning Tool for Medicine.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2004

Perspecta(TM) Medical System Offers Viewing in Full-Volume 3D;

Displays CT, MRI, and PET Image Data for Medical Researchers

Actuality Systems, Inc., the world leader in Spatial 3D visualization technology, has released Perspecta(TM) Medical(TM), the first-ever Spatial 3D system for surgical and interventional planning. Perspecta(TM) Medical combines Actuality's award-winning Perspecta(TM) Spatial 3D display with innovative software that enables medical researchers to dramatically increase the value of existing imaging technologies by projecting interactive Spatial 3D images of CT, MRI, and PET data into a 360-degree multi-viewer visualization system.

"Perspecta(TM) Medical is unlike anything the medical community has seen before," said Cameron Lewis, President and CEO of Actuality Systems. "It changes the concept of visualizing an image from a series of slices or cross-sections into actually seeing the entire scan - all the images, all at once, combined into the an entire series - in 3D space. The doctor benefits from easier interpretation, more accurate identification, and more precise location."

Perspecta(TM) consists of a 20-inch dome that plugs easily into a PC and displays full-color and full-motion images in true 3D space - images that can be viewed and manipulated from any vantage point. It provides an interactive "god's-eye view" for simultaneous collaboration by multiple viewers on spatially complex work, resulting in faster and more accurate comprehension and outcomes. For example, Perspecta(TM) can be used by radiologists working to understand the exact location of a tumor on a CT scan or mammogram, or by a surgical team for precise planning and positioning before surgery or radiation treatment.

The exclusive Perspecta(TM) Medical software provides a familiar DICOM-viewer interface that presents coronal, axial, and sagittal views of imaging or research data. A medical researcher could easily move back and forth from traditional 2D CT or PET views to the Spatial 3D view by simply clicking anywhere within the 2D image to project a volume-filling Spatial 3D image in the Perspecta(TM) Display. To zoom in or out of the patient data, a simple zoom control interactively magnifies the image.

"This Perspecta(TM) technology has great potential for surgical planning and image-guided therapies," said Dr. David Liang, assistant professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who has worked with the new system. "Procedures such as catheter-based ablation and minimally invasive surgeries are all areas where the 3D relationship of objects to each other is very important. Today we have to take our CT data and page through it as a series of 2D slices to figure out what's going on with the patient. Using Perspecta(TM) would allow us to see what's going on very quickly."

"The trend in medicine," said Dr. Liang, "is to make smaller holes to treat the patient, which creates the need for new tools to see what we are working on. So if we can eventually have a tool in the cath lab that allows the doctor to see the patient's anatomy and know exactly where the catheter is, that could save a good deal of time. And when you have a patient all sedated and draped, an extra five or 10 minutes can make a world of difference."

According to Actuality, Perspecta(TM) Medical is being offered to qualified medical institutions as a research tool and catalyst for the development of related applications. It has not received FDA approval and is not intended for use in clinical diagnosis, nor may it be used to prevent, diagnose, or treat disease.

About Actuality Systems

Founded in 1997, Actuality Systems, Inc. designs, engineers, licenses, and sells the world's first Spatial 3D display systems, which have been proven to provide faster and more accurate outcomes in critical defense, medical, and security operations. The Perspecta(TM) Spatial 3D System displays full-color and -motion images that occupy a volume in space, giving users a 360 degree god's-eye view and simultaneous multi-view collaboration - without goggles. Built on patented technologies, Perspecta(TM) Spatial 3D is plug-and-play, displaying all rendering and movement from widely used open-standard 3D applications. Perspecta(TM) Spatial 3D has won Product of the Year awards from respected trade and industry publications. Actuality Systems is backed by world-class venture firms and individuals, with offices near Boston. For more information, call 781/229-7812 ext. 190 or visit www.actuality-systems.com.