Novel iPhone applications developed by University of Utah researchers could help students, doctors and patients study the human body, evaluate medical problems and analyse other three-dimensional images.

The researchers have developed three iPhone apps, which are available via Apple's online iTunes App Store.

The first applications is called ImageVis3D Mobile, which lets iPhone users easily display, rotate and otherwise manipulate 3-D images of medical CT and MRI scans, and a wide range of scientific images, from insects to molecules to engines.

The application, which is available free on the iTunes store, is based on computer software from the university's Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute.

Another application-AnatomyLab-allows students to conduct a "virtual dissection" by providing images of a real human cadaver during 40 separate stages of dissection. All you have to do is hit the "View Cadaver" button.

The third application, called My Body, a scaled-down version of AnatomyLab, is available for 1.99 dollars and is intended for the general public, including "anyone curious about what their body looks like," said Nielsen.

ImageVis3D Mobile and ViSUS "help people visualize and manipulate large amounts of image data," particularly biomedical images, said Chris Johnson, director of the SCI Institute and a distinguished professor of computer science.