Collaborative pre-surgery planning in a tele-immersive environment using VR technology

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to present a new way to use virtual reality technology to create a collaborative pre-surgery planning with purpose of reducing the time of bone surgery operations. The method presented in this paper can be used by one or more medical teams, who can collaborate remotely, immersed in a tele-immersive environment, based on networked CAVE's systems and other stereoscopic desktop displays such as Reachin® Display [6] or classical desktop monitors with stereo capabilities. Surgeons can analyze and manipulate virtual representation of patient's bones using 6DOF tracking devices, haptic feedback devices or voice commands. The virtual bones of patients are obtained using a 3D scanner. Surgeons have also a visual contact of which of them, using audio-video conference technologies embedded in virtual reality scene. This paper makes a wider description of the simulator, specifying the main modules and characteristics of the developed architecture. Finally, it is described in an experiment the process carried out for tele-immersive pre-surgery planning of a femur fracture. © 2009 Springer.