The HEAR-EU Multiscale Imaging and Modelling Dataset of the Human Inner Ear

Welcome to the Cochlea Data Descriptor site. This is the landing page for downloading the Data descriptor, which can be found here: <URL descriptor to be filled once it is published> In case of enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us at: mauricio.reyes@istb.unibe.ch

Abstract

Understanding the anatomy of the human inner ear and its internal structures is paramount to advance hearing implant technology.

While the emergence of imaging devices allowed researchers to improve understanding of intracochlear structures, study its anatomical variability and develop functional models, the difficulties to collect appropriate data has resulted in studies conducted with few samples. This data descriptor, therefore, describes a rich set of image volumes of preserved human temporal bones acquired using cone beam computed tomography (CT) and micro-CT modalities, accompanied by manual delineations of the cochlea and sub-compartments, a statistical shape model encoding its anatomical variability, and data for electrode insertion and electrical simulations. This data makes an important asset for future studies in need of high-resolution data and related statistical data objects of the cochlea used to leverage scientific hypotheses. It is of relevance to anatomists, audiologists, computer scientists in the different domains of image analysis, computer simulations, and imaging formation, as well as for biomedical engineers designing new strategies for cochlear implantations, electrode design, and others.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the European Commission FP7 (HEAR-EU European project #304857 http://www.heareu.eu) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (Nano-Tera initiative project title Hear-Restore). In addition, this work was partly supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme (MDM-2015-0502). The authors also thank the SMIR (Kistler et al. 2013 / bibtex) team for hosting this data descriptor.

Access and download

To get access to the Cochlea Datadescriptor data, please either 1. Login to an existing account 2. or create an account on SMIR for free. Please choose the Cochlea.Datadescriptor as Research Unit on the registration page. You will receive your credential delivered to your email. Please allow some time for the request to be reviewed by the Cochlea Datadescriptor team.

You will find the folder CochleaDataDescriptor in Places >> SharedFolders in the left pane after logging in. Alternatively, you can follow the links below to the individual dataset.

Data