VR Dissection Assistant

VR (virtual reality) is a technology that creates a virtual representation of reality. In recent years, virtual reality has become more widely used in medical education. Virtual reality has great potential in medical education since it allows for remote learning and training that would be difficult

Project Title

VR Dissection Assistant

Project Area of Specialization

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Project Summary

VR (virtual reality) is a technology that creates a virtual representation of reality. In recent years, virtual reality has become more widely used in medical education. Virtual reality has great potential in medical education since it allows for remote learning and training that would be difficult to give in real life.

VR Dissection Assistant is a virtual reality application which aims to provide high quality education to medical students. This application will allow users to study the anatomy of the human body in a virtual environment. Users will learn about human anatomy through hands-on dissection practical exercises and theoretical lessons with interactive and fully functional 3D models of the human body and its organs. The environment will consist of all necessary medical equipment required to perform dissection on a virtual cadaver. A virtual instructor will teach the theoretical lessons and guide the user through each step of the dissection process.

Project Objectives

The project objectives are defined as follows:

• To build an educational application for medical students that provides hands-on experience on dissection using virtual reality and makes practical learning readily accessible.
• To modernize and innovate the quality of education in medical universities using virtual reality technology.
• To highlight the potential of virtual reality as a teaching tool to enhance the standard of higher education.
• To normalize the use of virtual reality in the fields of health and medicine to simulate surgeries and dissections for the purpose of learning and research.

Project Implementation Method

The technologies for the application include Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset which will be used as the platform for the application, Unity Engine for the development of the application, C# for scripting of the functionality of objects, and Blender for 3D modelling of application assets.

Unity Engine lets you target virtual reality devices directly from Unity, without any external plugins in the project. It provides a base API and feature set with compatibility for multiple devices. It has been designed to provide forward compatibility for future devices and software. It also offers the XR interaction toolkit, which is a high-level, component-based, interaction system for creating VR and AR experiences. It provides a framework that makes 3D and UI interactions available from Unity input events.

Blender is a free and open-source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, sculpting, rigging, 3D and 2D animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, and motion tracking. It also supports the OpenXR Standard, which provides virtual reality and augmented reality access.

The development process is defined as follows:

• All 3D assets including the human body, organs, medical equipment, and the background environment will be modeled in Blender.
• The 3D assets will be imported to Unity and will be made interactive for use in virtual reality environment. Basic commands for grabbing objects and using tools will be implemented through the help of XR Plug-in and XR interactive toolkit libraries which offer all the basic controls for VR setup without any scripting.
• Physics will also be implemented on game objects using custom C# scripts to simulate a realistic experience.
• Once that is completed, tests and debugging would ensure proper functionality of the application and correct simulation of the human anatomy.

The UI of the application is designed as follows:

• When the application is first launched, the user will see a splash screen with a brief introduction of the application.
• Next, the Home Screen will be presented which will include a menu with choices to start different dissection scenarios, change settings, and to exit the application.
• In the dissection scenarios, the user is facilitated with medical equipment required for performing dissection, the user can grab and use these tools on a virtual body placed on a surgical table.
• The dissection process is guided by a virtual instructor who will instruct the user to perform specific tasks to achieve the learning objective.
• Anatomically accurate 3D models of organs will also be presented in the scene for students to study closely.

Benefits of the Project

The benefits are defined as follows:

• Medical students will be able to perform dissection on the human body in a virtual environment and gain hands-on knowledge about anatomy in a safe, risk-free, and effective learning environment.
• Medical universities can provide high quality learning in virtual environment without requiring arrangement of corpses or dissection equipment.
• Highly realistic 3D models of organs will allow closer virtual inspection at any angle and significantly improve anatomy understanding for students.
• The application will help medical students overcome the common fear of performing surgery on the human body.
• Virtual reality headset is portable and compact so learning environment can be set up in classrooms and labs of any size.
• Performing dissection on a virtual human body will not pose ethical issues unlike dissection performed on a real human body.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

• The final output of the project will be a virtual reality application built on the Oculus Quest 2 platform.
• The application will be focused on a complete Heart Dissection module in which the user can dissect the torso and then the heart of the human body to study its anatomy and working by inspecting its 3D model and functionality animations. Other dissection modules for lungs, liver, and stomach will be released in alpha stage.
• The dissection environment will be a generic hospital setup with various interactive 3D models of medical tools which will be used to perform the dissection. These tools are specified below:

1. Scalpels.
2. Scissors.
3. Forceps.
4. Probe.
5. Dissecting boards.
6. Magnifying glass.

• A virtual instructor model will provide step-by-step instructions to the user to perform dissection.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Education

Other Industries

Medical

Core Technology

Augmented & Virtual Reality

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Quality Education

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com