# Adding near-real time collaborative manual segmentation
**URL:** https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255
**Category:** Development
**Tags:** segmentation, python, extensions
**Created:** [May 2, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255 "2023-05-02T18:40:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kchawla-pi](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/kchawla-pi)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255/1 "2023-05-02T18:40:13Z")
I am looking into building a plugin to collaboratively annotate and segment sMRI. The idea is that we can invite specific people via email and they (and only they) can all join and collaborate a volume as a team via a low latency connection, everything running on our local servers so the hospital’s data does not leave the servers.
What would that entail? I would appreciate any guidance & support that can be offered so I know where to start.
I expect I will need to know how Slicer stores its segmentation data in memory as an MRI is being segmented. I expect I will have to stream that data to all connected users.
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### Author:  [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)
#### Post date: [May 2, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255/2 "2023-05-02T18:47:39Z")
There are collaborative editing possibilities at many different levels. For example, each user can run a local Slicer instance and sync data with others via OpenIGTLink. Or, you can run a single VNC-enabled Slicer docker image and allow many people to connect and control (there is one cursor, it can be controlled by anyone who has connected with the control-enabled link, similarly how you take control of a user’s computer in zoom, but VNC allows anybody from the group to take control, automatically).
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### Author:  [@Javes7777](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/Javes7777)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2025, 12:11pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255/3 "2025-08-27T12:11:46Z")
Hi @lassoan
Is there a real-time collaborative environment in slicer3d that allows multiple users to work just like google docs?
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### Author:  [@pieper](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/pieper)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255/4 "2025-08-27T12:25:08Z")
There have been some very interesting experiments, but no currently available tool as far as I know.
> **[Group-Slicer: A collaborative extension of 3D-Slicer](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1532046405000237)**
>
> In this paper, we describe a first step towards a collaborative extension of the well-known 3D-Slicer; this platform is nowadays used as a standalone …
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### Author:  [@Javes7777](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/Javes7777)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2025, 1:28pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255/5 "2025-08-27T13:28:46Z")
yeah this one is from 2005,
I found another paper:
[OpenDose3D: A free, collaborative 3D Slicer module for patient-specific dosimetry](https://sfu-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_cdi_hal_primary_oai_HAL_hal_03095450v1&context=PC&vid=SFUL&lang=en_US&search_scope=default_scope&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=title%2Ccontains%2Ccollaborative%2CAND&query=any%2Cexact%2C3d%20slicer%2CAND&sortby=rank&mode=advanced&offset=0)
But its behind a firewall and it also has something to do with dosimetry, which I am not sure allows editing segmentations.
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### Author:  [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-near-real-time-collaborative-manual-segmentation/29255/6 "2025-08-29T18:20:10Z")
Google docs like editing is implemented in [ImagineHive](https://www.dnahive.com/imaging3d.html) (some more information in a related Project Week [project page](https://projectweek.na-mic.org/PW40_2024_GranCanaria/Projects/ImagineHive/)). You can find contact email on the webpage, but if you are interested I can also give more direct contact information in a private message.