Essential Anatomy 3

When I was much younger and taking anatomy classes at school, it stuck in my mind those plastic models of the human body , from which you could remove the transparent “skin” and touch and place each of the organs that make us up.

The printed plates were much more detailed and allowed us to see how we are made up of large systems – digestive, circulatory, nervous, etc. – which in turn were accommodated under layers of muscle, all supported by the bone structure of the skeleton.

Today I want to review the application Essential Anatomy 3 for Windows 8. A 3D model of the human body, which would have been the delight of my childhood, and which is a powerful didactic tool to learn the enormous complexity that contains us.

From the bones to the muscles

A bare skeleton greets us when we open the application. But if we click on any of the bones, we are colored in green and we are shown a small box where the name and its scientific name are shown; Also here I can hide the selected anatomical object or make it transparent so I can see what's underneath.

In the lower left corner I access the Systems menu, where I can see the different layers of muscles, veins, arteries, nerves, cartilage and tendons, the respiratory, digestive, urinary and lymphatic.

But to have an even more precise control of what I want to have visible, especially for what is hidden inside the organs, I have a drop-down menu of “ Control menu ” that allows me to hide or display for each of the components, or select by name.

Interaction with the model

Of course I can search to locate any part of the body or make freehand annotations on the visualization image, which allows me to share through social networks, applications or mail. Even I can store my screenshots and annotations on my OneDrive, so I can access it anytime, anywhere.

Another very useful function is the bookmark which, as its name indicates, is to save view configurations with an identifier name, to be able to see them later in a simple way. The best thing is that the app brings a fairly generous list of its own bookmarks, and that show the main organs and Systems. And, in addition, they can also be stored or shared.

Lastly, and for fun, we can launch a Trivial where I am placed at a point of the body and I have to indicate its name and position.

In short Essential Anatomy 3 is a high-level educational tool, which I find very suitable for those who are studying or are studious of the human body, and a perfect example of the advantages of applying technology in training.

Taking into account the monetary value of those plastic models, or the professional ones in resin, the €10 that the app costs is not much. Even so, the evaluation version – which is the one analyzed - lets you explore the entire application for 8 days.

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