Dr. Paul Paolini, Scientific Director of the Rees-Stealy Research Foundation Laboratory, supervised 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 displayed at the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center in San Diego's Balboa Park. "Heart Flight" allows 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.

GOTO HEARTFLIGHT!

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 shown in the exhibit.