Virtual tomography: a new approach to efficient human-computer interaction for medical imaging

Abstract

By utilizing virtual reality (VR) technologies the computer system virtusMED implements the concept of virtual tomography for exploring medical volumetric image data. Photographic data from a virtual patient as well as CT or MRI data from real patients are visualized within a virtual scene. The view of this scene is determined either by a conventional computer mouse, a head-mounted display or a freely movable flat panel. A virtual examination probe is used to generate oblique tomographic images which are computed from the given volume data. In addition, virtual models can be integrated into the scene such as anatomical models of bones and inner organs. virtusMED has shown to be a valuable tool to learn human anaotomy and to udnerstand the principles of medical imaging such as sonography. Furthermore its utilization to improve CT and MRI based diagnosis is very promising. Compared to VR systems of the past, the standard PC-based system virtusMED is a cost-efficient and easily maintained solution providing a highly intuitive time-saving user interface for medical imaging.