Endocast Extraction project (Endex)

Gilles Gesquière (LIRIS, UMR CNRS 5205, France)
Gérard Subsol (LIRMM, CNRS/University Montpellier 2, France)

Brief outlook

A cranial endocast is a cast (replica) of the inside of the skull. Natural (fossil) endocasts can sometimes be found, and artificial endocasts can be typically obtained by filling the empty braincase with latex and using the latter as a mould to build a plaster cast. More recently, CT has been extensively used to build “virtual” or “digital” endocasts in a precise and non-invasive way.

The aim of our project is to provide new tools to extract endocast. A software is born of this project, endex, based on our library brainfull.

Endex has been partially supported by the 3D-MORPHINE Collaborative Research Initiative.

Short bibliography

S. Prima, R. Holloway, G. Subsol, G. Gesquière, T. Schoenemann, B. Combès, J. Monge, J. Braga. “New 3D automatic methods for the analysis of the endocranial shape and its relationship with ectocranial structures: assessment and preliminary experiments”. 80th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Minneapolis (U.S.A.), April 2011. Abstract published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology, p. 243-244, Vol. 144 Issue S52, 2011 (pdf).
G. Subsol, G. Gesquière, J. Braga, F. Thackeray. “3D automatic methods to segment virtual endocasts: state of the art and future directions”. 79th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Albuquerque (U.S.A.), April 2010. Abstract published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology, p. 226-227, Vol. 141 Issue S50, 2010 (pdf).
G. Subsol, G. Gesquière, J. Braga, F. Thackeray. “Une nouvelle méthode de segmentation automatique des endocrânes à partir d'images tomodensitométriques 3D”. 1836èmes Journées de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, Paris (France), January 2011. Abstract published in Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société Anthropologique de Paris, Vol. 23, Suppl. 1, p. S36, 2011 (pdf).

Download our soft

Endex software is freely available for scientific collaborators. You have to ask for a login and a password. After that, you can follow this link.

A tutorial is also avalaible : Endex_Tutorial.pdf