查看文章

Over the last years, the quick advancement and widespread diffusion of Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR), prompted by the gaming and entertainment industry, has led to great interest in its possible applications in medical education and surgery. In particular, IVR is a technology based on specialized hardware platforms capable of generating a completely virtual world the user can dive into. This “immersion” is typically achieved using headmounted displays and haptic devices, so that the user can block out the surroundings and interact with the virtual objects in the simulated environment. 1 In terms of experience provided, the available systems are heterogenous. Many simulators allow the three-dimensional visualization of anatomical virtual models, which can be reconstructed from the patient’s radiological imaging and manipulated through zoom, pan and rotation functions or “ghosting” individual components. More …