Virtual Reality in Medicine

Virtual reality (VR) is characterized by immersion of user senses into a synthetic computer-generated environment. The real visual, auditory, and tactile cues are replaced by computer-generated sensory cues therefore giving the user a sense of presence in a virtual world. VR has found many applications in the field of medicine. Advances in high performance computing, graphics, and networking, together with new human-machine interfaces form a technological basis for VR applications. Research in the area of 3-D image analysis, visualization, tissue modelling, and human-machine interfaces provides scientific expertise necessary for developing successful VR applications. Related fields and terminology such as augmented reality, full and partial immersion, wearable computers, heptic interfaces, tele-presence, and tele-medicine will be introduced in the paper. The aims of the paper are to present the foundations of VR technology, to provide an overview of some research activities in medical VR, and to provide pointers to VR information and research resources. An overview of the current VR research activities in the field of medicine includes: education, surgical planning and simulation, visualization, teleradiology, computer-aided surgery, radiotherapy planning, dentistry, tele-medicine, human-machine interfaces, and rehabilitation and therapy.