Dr. Paul Paolini, Scientific Director of the Rees-Stealy Research Foundation Laboratory, is currently supervising the creation of "Heart Flight", an interactive science exhibit intended to educate the general public about the structure and function of the human heart. The exhibit is to be displayed at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center in San Diego's Balboa Park, with an expected unveiling later in 1997. "Heart Flight" will allow visitors to journey by computer through a realistic, colorized, anatomically accurate 3-D model of the heart. The exhibit illustrates the heart's anatomy, the pathway of blood flow through the heart's chambers and its valves, the dynamics of the beating heart, the pathway of excitation during a heart-beat, and the consequences of a heart attack. Interactive computer graphics are used to present the visitor with a vivid "you-are-there" sense of the heart's architecture.

The Heart Flight project involves a collaboration of a number of agencies and individuals, including the American Heart Association (through its California Affiliate and San Diego County Chapter offices), the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and Space Theater (Dr. Jeffrey Kirsch, Director, and Elsa Feher, Director of Exhibits), Dr. Paolini and his colleagues in the College of Sciences at San Diego State University (in particular Mitra Fattahipour, the College's Multimedia Coordinator), and Engineering Animation, Inc. of Ames, Iowa (EAI), a software and multimedia firm with experience in developing teaching materials for medical education. EAI has provided many of the animations and renderings of the heart model to be shown in the exhibit.

Accurate anatomical data used in the exhibit was obtained from the Visible Human project by SDSU through the National Library of Medicine (within the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.). A Silicon Graphics workstation was acquired by Dr. Paolini's laboratory for this project. Software used for creating and rendering the exhibit's models and animation includes VisLab and VisModel programs developed by EAI. Students and staff of the RSRF Laboratory have critiqued and recommended refinements in preliminary versions of the Heart Flight exhibit materials. A most enthusiastic reception by the public is anticipated, and everyone should plan to see this most informative exhibit.