A natural interface for the training of medical personnel in an immersive and virtual reality system

Abstract

In this paper we present an immersive system, developed for the RIMSI project, designed for the training of medical and para-medical personnel in emergency medicine. Virtual reality systems have been used recently in combination with natural interaction systems for patients' rehabilitation but are proving especially useful for educational applications in the field of medical training and teaching. The idea is to mimic real three-dimensional environments and to make them available through natural interaction to enable users to explore, interact, collaborate and assist patients in virtual scenarios that otherwise could not be simulated easily in the real world without an high cost (e.g. to prepare the environment for a plane or a car crash) or possible risks of injuries to actors involved in the simulation (e.g. perilous situations like a gas leak). In addition, these simulation scenarios, using a digital environment, are repeatable and can be recorded, easing the process of errors' highlighting. The RIMSI prototype provides a virtual first aid scenario with interactive 3D graphics which can be controlled and navigated through a natural gesture interface based on Kinect™. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.