Virtual Reality for Interactive Medical Analysis

Abstract

Molecular imaging along with 3-dimensional (3-D) or 4-D (3-D spatial + 1-D temporal) visualization is widely used in clinical diagnosis and surgical planning. However, the pre-defined perspective and confined manipulation limit the in-depth exploration and analysis in 3-D/4-D. To overcome this obstacle, we utilized virtual reality (VR) to interact with CT images of the cardiopulmonary system in a 3-D immersive environment. We implemented manipulative functionalities into the VR environment that altered the cardiopulmonary models to interactively generate new data analysis perspectives. We successfully sliced a CT cardiac model showing in-depth surface visualizations of the ventricles and atria. Our customized framework enables enhanced data interpretation interactivity of CT images and establishes a user-directed manipulative VR platform derived from imaging results for remote medical practices including training, education, and investigation.

The Impact of Virtual Reality Technology on Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes in Higher Education

“…The observed increase in perceived engagement and motivation levels after experiencing VR-enhanced learning environments aligns with previous research [9]. The immersive nature of VR offers a unique platform for creating interactive and captivating learning experiences [20], fostering a sense of presence and agency. The high levels of satisfaction reported by participants further underscore the appeal and effectiveness of VR as a pedagogical tool.…”

A Framework to Enhance the Experience of CBCT Data in Real-Time Using Immersive Virtual Reality: Impacting Dental Pre-Surgical Planning

“…Integration tools like VtkToUnity [17] seamlessly bridge the gap between VTK, a popular medical visualization toolkit [18], and Unity [19], allowing developers to leverage their combined strengths. Unity's capabilities receive further validation through examples such as Koger et al's [20] immersive visualization of the cardiopulmonary system from CT scans. This demonstration showcases the potential of Unity in the medical VR landscape.…”

Light sheet imaging and interactive analysis of the cardiac structure in neonatal mice

“…The specific annotation for analysis leads to the generation of different models, being time-consuming and remaining the bottleneck of high-throughput analysis in collaborative projects. In comparison, our own VR method [8,9,13] allows users to conduct different kinds of analysis and operations on a well-established model such as the 3D trabecular network in its natural form (Figure 7C-F). Using this novel method, we are able to interact with the entire left ventricle of the mouse heart and a portion of the trabecular network that we are interested in during our exploration of this digital model (Video S4).…”

“…The resultant model was exported as a .fbx file into our VR platform made with the Unity engine, where we were able to interactively visualize and analyze the object through the Oculus Quest II HMD and its controllers. Operations and manipulations such as cutting a section of trabeculae and measuring the distance between two trabeculae stems were initiated by the controllers [13]. The mouse heart that is visualized as a VR model in Figure 7 was stored as a 1.36 GB .obj file.…”

“…In contrast to other methods, this approach preserves native morphology and expedites the processing time for adipose tissue, dramatically improving its stiffness and reducing its volume expansion [6,12]. To explore the complicated ventricular trabeculation extracted from LSM imaging data, we have customized the interaction between users and digital hearts, demonstrating the benefits of highly free userdirected quantitative analysis via VR models over the conventional predefined analysis [13].…”