Virtual Autopsy Table



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The Virtual Autopsy Table from NorrköpingsVisualiseringscenter on Vimeo.

Popularity: 15% [?]

PerioSim: Haptics-Based Periodontal Simulator



This program provides a visual overview of the haptics-based virtual reality periodontal training simulator application. A realistic 3-dimensional model of the human mouth is explored in real-time; the interface allows a user to adjust the model position, viewpoint, and transparency level, while using a haptics device providing force-feedback to realistically interact with the ‘virtual’ mouth.

Various periodontal procedures are explored for the purpose of training – such as examining calculi on the tooth root, measuring pocket depth, detecting calculus, applying treatment through post-surgical evaluation by a dentist.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Telepresence Robotics – Haptics, Pebbles, Virtual Surgery



The Gadget Show in the UK covers telepresence robotics including a haptic glove that gives real physical feedback for virtual objects, Pebbles the telepresence robot, and telesurgery among other topics.

For more information on telepresence visit http://www.TelepresenceOptions.com, the Internet’s most comprehensive on the telepresence revolution

Popularity: 37% [?]

Experience Virtual Schizophrenia



PMS Microdesign, Inc.

ABC News 20/20

“Virtual Hallucinations”, a virtual reality simulation of schizophrenia

Popularity: 11% [?]

Treat Acrophobia with Virtual Reality



Students from the ESCIN created a nice environment to give you fear of heights using Crescent HMD. Commented by David Nahon from Dassault Systèmes at Laval Virtual 2009.

For more VR News : http://cb.nowan.net/blog

Popularity: 6% [?]

Occlusion Handling for Medical AR using a Volume Phantom



Full Title: Occlusion Handling for Medical Augmented Reality using a Volumetric Phantom Model

The support of surgical interventions has long been in the focus of application-oriented augmented reality research. Modern methods of surgery, like minimally-invasive procedures, can benefit from the additional information visualization provided by augmented reality. The usability of medical augmented reality depends on a rendering scheme for virtual objects designed to generate easily and quickly understandable augmented views. One important factor for providing such an accessible reality augmentation is the correct handling of the occlusion of virtual objects by real scene elements. The usually large volumetric datasets used in medicine are ill-suited for use as phantom models for static occlusion handling. We present a simple and fast preprocessing pipeline for medical volume datasets which extracts their visual hull volume. The resulting, significantly simplified visual hull iso-surface is used for real-time static occlusion handling in our AR system, which is based on off-the-shelf medical equipment.

Reference: J. Fischer and D. Bartz and W. Strasser. Occlusion Handling for Medical Augmented Reality using a Volumetric Phantom Model. In: Proceedings of ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) 2004, Hong Kong, pages 174-177

Popularity: 7% [?]

Realidade Aumentada – Materia do Jornal da Globo



My favorite part starts at 5:00

Popularity: 8% [?]

Neurosky – Control devices with your mind



NeuroSky has developed a cost effective bio sensor and signal processing system for the consumer market. Our wearable technology unlocks worlds of new applications such as consumer electronics, health, wellness, education and training.

The neurons that comprise the brain work on electrical impulses. The last century of neurological research has shown us that brainwaves of different wavelengths indicate different emotional states, like a focused awareness, a meditative state, or drowsiness. Brainwaves have been used in medical research and therapy for years. We’re bringing it to the consumer world.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Doctors Test New Gestural Interface During Brain Surgery



Doctors in Washington D.C. use the gestural UI during an “in vivo” neurosurgical brain biopsy, controlling it with precise hand motions, while keeping their skin sterile, helping to prevent the chance of infection.

Windows 7 – will rely heavily on gestures and touch. In a most basic sense, a gestural interface is controlled by movements of the hands or arms, allowing users to gesture to literally scroll around images on screen. Sometimes this is coupled with touch in devices such as the iPhone, where a pinching gesture can shrink or expand items.

Continuing the progress in the field of gestural computing, researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) developed a new gestural computer system specially designed for medical use. In the past, doctors used touch screens or mice to navigate about images during surgeries. However, by touching the screen, they risk compromising sterility and introducing infection into the surgery site.

The new system is purely gestural and requires no touch. It allows doctors to scroll around images by moving their hands in front of the screen.

The system received an impressive field test at a Washington D.C. hospital and the results are detailed in the June article “A Gesture-based Tool for Sterile Browsing of Radiology Images” in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Juan P. Wachs, a recent Ph.D. recipient from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at BGU lead the research, which he describes stating, “A sterile human-machine interface is of supreme importance because it is the means by which the surgeon controls medical information, avoiding patient contamination, the operating room (OR) and the other surgeons. This could replace touch screens now used in many hospital operating rooms which must be sealed to prevent accumulation or spreading of contaminants and requires smooth surfaces that must be thoroughly cleaned after each procedure – but sometimes aren’t. With infection rates at U.S. hospitals now at unacceptably high rates, our system offers a possible alternative.”

The new system, known as Gestix, eliminates the need for complex and largely ineffective sterilization procedures on today’s OR touch screens. When surgeons first start with the system, they train it and learn to use it by learning to move their hand in one of eight directions away from a neutral area, fast. This movement scrolls the image. They also learn to zoom in and out by rotating their hand clockwise or counterclockwise. To avoid misleading signals, when the doctor is done, they drop their hand which triggers a sleep mode.

The hand motions are captured using a Canon VC-C4 camera and they are processed by an Intel Pentium processor and a Matrox Standard II Video Capture device. The system was tested to much success at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C during two “in vivo” neurosurgical brain biopsies. This may be the first time such a system was used with an “in vivo” procedure, according to the researchers.

Wachs worked with colleagues Professors Helman Stern and Yael Edan on the project and with a variety of M.S. students, who theses pertained to the topic. Ongoing research is focusing to expand the gestural interface for use in tele-robotic and tele-operated systems. By adding voice recognition, researchers hope to create a system with many control modes (multimodal).

Other additional research on the imaging side is being developed by Prof. Helman Stern and Dr. Tal Oren of the Dept. of Industrial Engineering and Management and Dr. Amir Shapiro of the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. They aim to help the vision impaired navigate better through use of this system and a tactile body display.

BGU’s staff has not announced the current commercialization plans for the technology, but it seems likely that it will soon be finding its way into hospitals.

Popularity: 8% [?]