Virtual reality application applied to biomedical models reconstructed from CT scanning

Abstract

Virtual reality-simulated environments have been used for training for more than 40 years. In recent years, an active development of 3D technologies dealing with medical training, planning and guidance has become an increasingly important area of interest in both research and health-care. Moreover, surgery planning and diagnosis using virtual reality (VR) technology has received much attention. User studies show that the method is both effective and easy to use. The purpose of this paper is to present a VR application based on three-dimensional (3-D) surface reconstruction CT imaging for surgical planning and simulation. We propose an interactive tool to improve observation before surgery and increase diagnosis efficiency through virtual reality. This tool allows to obtain a more accurate representation comparing with current technology, such as CT or MRI vision. This cost-effective solution can be easily adopted in any hospital for daily use.