Abstract

It was 1975 when I joined as a graduate student on a research team at the University of Washington, Seatle USA. I worked under the supervision of professor Sandor Veress at the Department of Civil Engineering. At that time, it was the Vietnam war, and many veterans were suffering various injuries. Therefore, there were several research projects with joint research between the Swedish Medical Center, the Veterans Administration Hospital, and the University of Washington in Seattle dealing with orthopedics. I was already a graduate of the Rural and Surveying Engineering Department at the Technical University of Athens and a licensed surveyor in Greece. Because of my qualifications, I was involved in two such research projects. One was to perform external measurements and mapping the human body using close-range photogrammetry with simultaneous exposures of overlapping photographs. The other was internal measurements and mapping the human body using X-ray photogrammetry with simultaneous exposures of overlapping X-ray images from two anodes. The first project was based on the theory of Dr. Ernest M. Burgess, M.D., head of the Swedish Medical Center: by knowing the shape of a below-the-knee amputated leg in two extreme macules states of contract and relax position, he could design a prosthesis for better physiologic support. The other project used X-rays to map and monitor the hip joint replacement and also study the patella movement.