3D Experience Research Articles

Paths for anatomy education in the digital era. Options of the Institute of Anatomy of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon

Introduction: In an analysis of teaching and learning, it is necessary to examine, the curriculum, the mode of teaching, the quality of how it is delivered and the infrastructure within which it is delivered [1]. Materials and methods: The Institute of Anatomy of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon presents the option of the teaching realized, supported in the curricular integration of the Anatomy subjects, with all possible strategies to implement it in the grouping of disciplines in teaching and assessment modules (Morphological Sciences Group). Based on the reduction in the gross anatomy teaching hours, was reviewed the way of teaching anatomy, with finishing with compulsory dissecting for anatomy medical undergraduate students, implementing prossection workshops outside the regular school year. Students are also actively involved in their learning and curricular integration (with options of laboratorial stages, participation in investigation microprojects and tutorial credited experience). In Clinical Anatomy, were used problem-based learning (PBL) and case-based learning (CBL), allowing horizontal and vertical integration. It was also implemented Imaging Workshops for interactive participation of students in anatomic diagnosis. The option for student-centred teaching was made. The modified Thiel embalmed method is practiced and our laboratory of plastination to create study models for our students, as well as the Institute 3D printer. It is exploited the excellence of facilities and resources for Anatomy of Cadaveric Dissection, with enough corps donation. We had a ratio of 1 teacher and 2 monitors credited by every 14 students. Results: Corps donation input/output rate (2017) of 1. With the teaching strategy used, in the Clinical Anatomy disciplinary area, in the last academic year (2017/2018) at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, we obtained an approval rate that varied between 92.5% in Continental Portugal (with 320 students) and 100% in Madeira Island (with 37 students). Still in this school year we had 10 microprojects of investigation done by students, credited monitors, some of them using digital anatomy to accurate the clinical diagnosis and reproduce models, for testing surgical intervention techniques. Discussion and conclusions: We agree with the opinion of Papa and Vaccarezza [1] and we defined our teaching strategy according to our reality and the conditions that we have. So we conclude that: 1) Anatomic dissection and prossection continues to be the best and most real 3D experience yet to be achieved by the most advanced digital anatomy programs available. 2) The digital anatomy is a complementary or suplective method for the absence of the resource of anatomical dissection or prossection, allowing maximization of teaching activity and learning performance. 3) The Institute of Anatomy of The Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon is open to the realization of partnerships of teaching of Digital Anatomy, based on this line of conception.

Ultrathin wide-angle large-area digital 3D holographic display using a non-periodic photon sieve

Holographic displays can provide a 3D visual experience to multiple users without requiring special glasses. By precisely tailoring light fields, holographic displays could resemble realistic 3D scenes with full motion parallax and continuous depth cues. However, available holographic displays are unable to generate such scenes given practical limitations in wavefront modulation. In fact, the limited diffraction angle and small number of pixels of current wavefront modulators derive into a 3D scene with small size and narrow viewing angle. We propose a flat-panel wavefront modulator capable of displaying large dynamic holographic images with wide viewing angle. Specifically, an ultrahigh-capacity non-periodic photon sieve, which diffracts light at wide angles, is combined with an off-the-shelf liquid crystal display panel to generate holographic images. Besides wide viewing angle and large screen size, the wavefront modulator provides multi-colour projection and a small form factor, which suggests the possible implementation of holographic displays on thin devices.

An Evaluation of Depth and Size Perception on a Spherical Fish Tank Virtual Reality Display.

Fish Tank Virtual Reality (FTVR) displays create a compelling 3D spatial effect by rendering to the perspective of the viewer with head-tracking. Combining FTVR with a spherical display enhances the 3D experience with unique properties of the spherical screen such as the enclosing shape, consistent curved surface, and borderless views from all angles around the display. The ability to generate a strong 3D effect on a spherical display with head-tracked rendering is promising for increasing user's performance in 3D tasks. An unanswered question is whether these natural affordances of spherical FTVR displays can improve spatial perception in comparison to traditional flat FTVR displays. To investigate this question, we conducted an experiment to see whether users can perceive the depth and size of virtual objects better on a spherical FTVR display compared to a flat FTVR display on two tasks. Using the spherical display, we found significantly that users had 1cm depth accuracy compared to 6.5cm accuracy using the flat display on a depth-ranking task. Likewise, their performance on a size-matching task was also significantly better with the size error of 2.3mm on the spherical display compared to 3.1mm on the flat display. Furthermore, the perception of size-constancy is stronger on the spherical display than the flat display. This study indicates that the natural affordances provided by the spherical form factor improve depth and size perception in 3D compared to a flat display. We believe that spherical FTVR displays have potential as a 3D virtual environment to provide better task performance for various 3D applications such as 3D designs, scientific visualizations, and virtual surgery.

Dynamic Multi-View Autostereoscopy

With advantages of motion parallax and viewing convenience, multi-view autostereoscopic displays have attracted increasing attention in recent years. It is obvious that increasing the number of views improves the quality of 3D images/videos and leads to better motion parallax. However, it requires huge amount of computing resources to generate large numbers of view images in real time. In principle, objects appearing near the screen plane have very small absolute disparity. It can use fewer views to present these objects for achieving the same level of motion parallax. The concept of dynamic multi-view autostereoscopy is to dynamically control the number of views to generate for the points in 3D space based on their disparity. Points with larger absolute disparity use more views, while points with smaller absolute disparity use fewer views. As a result, fewer computing resources are required for real-time generation of view images. Subjective assessments show that only slight degradation in 3D experience is resulted on its realization over 2D plus depth based multi-view autostereoscopic display. However, the amount of computation for generating view images can be reduced by about 44.3% when 3D scenes are divided into three spaces.

The decision game: a serious game approach to understanding environmental risk management decisions

Here we describe the implementation of an experimental research tool called the Decision Game that we used to collect data on household flood risk management decisions. Participants using this tool play an interactive game that involves making household decisions about place of residence and a variety of household expenditures, including spending on flood insurance and private flood risk mitigation. Participants also answer survey questions before and after playing the game; the pre-game survey collected demographic information, and the post-game survey collected information about participant experiences with flooding and flood mitigation. Online and face-to-face participants showed similar engagement with the experiment, and most participants appeared to have made deliberate and considered decisions about risk mitigation. Online study participants had similar responses to those who participated in person, although face-to-face participants seemed slightly more likely to mitigate against risk. Overall, participants in this research were younger, more educated and more likely to rent a home than the average Canadian. Serious games may be useful for augmenting existing data gathering strategies used in understanding environmental decision making, particularly for rare catastrophic events for which stated preference surveys may be less informative. Serious games allow for sharing a mixture of information with study participants, including maps, video clips, text and even immersive 3D experiences, and can be administered online to increase participation levels. Future research will consider longer duration online experiments and more immersive interaction frameworks.

Creation of a micro cutting machine tool digital-twin using a cloud-based model-based PLM Platform: first results

The current work presents the first results when aiming to create a digital twin of a single edge micro cutting machine tool in a collaborative cloud-based PLM platform. As starting point, this work takes the models created during the development and design phase of the machine tool, which date back to ongoing works that started three years ago. In order to mirror the physical device in a unified platform, the different models, created using different computational applications, have to be imported into a single collaborative PLM platform (3D Experience from Dassault Systems). The goal of integrating these models into a unified cloud-based platform is to achieve an interoperable model-based digital twin. The digital twin should allow to estimate and simulate the behavior of the machine under different cutting process conditions. Ultimately, it should also allow to estimate how the machined part will be. The PLM platform is the kernel to implement a closed-loop data flow between the digital and the physical domains.

Emerging MPEG Standards for Point Cloud Compression

Due to the increased popularity of augmented and virtual reality experiences, the interest in capturing the real world in multiple dimensions and in presenting it to users in an immersible fashion has never been higher. Distributing such representations enables users to freely navigate in multi-sensory 3D media experiences. Unfortunately, such representations require a large amount of data, not feasible for transmission on today’s networks. Efficient compression technologies well adopted in the content chain are in high demand and are key components to democratize augmented and virtual reality applications. Moving Picture Experts Group, as one of the main standardization groups dealing with multimedia, identified the trend and started recently the process of building an open standard for compactly representing 3D point clouds, which are the 3D equivalent of the very well-known 2D pixels. This paper introduces the main developments and technical aspects of this ongoing standardization effort.

Simultaneous object size and depth adjustment for stereoscopic 3D images

To enhance the visual experience of stereoscopic 3D (S3D) images provided for the users, this paper presents a novel method for simultaneous object size and depth adjustment. The two important properties of our methods are that it allows the users to specify the object and its scaling factor to control object's size and depth simultaneously, and it uses mesh warping to control the keypoints of an object with shape preservation, object preservation and visual comfort constraints. As a result, our method achieves high accuracy, visual experience and controllability for S3D display.

How Coca-Cola went three-dimensional to revolutionise its package design workflow to save time, money and foster more creativity

Three-dimensional (3D) visualisation is the latest chapter in Coca-Cola’s long and storied history of dynamic packaging design. Using Adobe Dimension, which allows users to visualise product shots, package designs and other branded collateral in 3D real-world settings (with no photography required), Coca-Cola has trained a team of graphic designers to transition their designs from two-dimensional assets to fully-visualised 3D mockups on their own. The end result is saving the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in product visualisation costs (from photography to rendering), has sped up its prototyping process, and has empowered graphic designers to take their packaging and marketing designs to a whole new level, whether that is in the early stages of design visualisation, or as the assets they have created are used for augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D experiences. This case study explores Coca-Cola’s transition into this new digital workflow, and shares the lessons learned along the way, along with the exciting prospects this new digital pipeline presents.

Seeing double in art and geoscience: 3D aerial portraits of ‘lost’ Anthropocene landscapes

ABSTRACTRelationships between humans and environments are deeply challenged by recognition of the Anthropocene, which implicates humans as major drivers of planetary-scale environmental changes. Responding to these challenges requires technical expertise, but also creativity in dealing with complex social, cultural and political relationships of place. This paper introduces Relief as an art project that repurposes historical aerial photographs for the creation of affective, low-tech 3D experiences of landscapes and their histories. The creation of these works, and the experience of viewing them, offer a process for witnessing change in the Anthropocene. Content and aesthetics bring viewers into different ways of seeing landscapes, with implications for outreach and communication, as well as approaches to situating science and scientist in relation to society, politics and place. This art project leads into discussion of human agents and non-human agents as co-producers of landscapes, and the opportunities for art and science to respond to environmental concerns.

Establishing and Running a Three-dimensional and Advanced Imaging Laboratory.

Multidetector CT technology has advanced during the past 2 decades from single-digit numbers of sections to 320-section CT scanners. The ability to perform three-dimensional (3D) postprocessing of acquired data has accompanied this technical progress. Multiple considerations are involved in developing and deploying a 3D and advanced imaging laboratory to provide postprocessing for both CT and MRI examinations. Establishing and running a 3D laboratory requires administrators to buy into the process and also requires regular input from radiologists and other stakeholders. Technologists with prior 3D experience are rare, and extensive immersive training is typically required. Laboratory space and equipment must be maintained and updated regularly to continue to meet stakeholders' needs. Postprocessing protocols must be established and reviewed periodically. Quality control is also necessary to ensure that postprocessing outputs adhere to the protocols. Laboratory technologists can also provide postprocessing support for research examinations and can lend their technical expertise to research projects. Regular review of laboratory productivity is essential to ensure longevity and availability of necessary resources (human, environmental, and technical). As the technologies for the imaging equipment, the picture archiving and communication system, and postprocessing continue to advance, the role of the 3D laboratory will also evolve to include other services. This evolution will affect ongoing training of technologists, as well as the requirements when new technologists are hired. The 3D laboratory is often positioned to take on novel technology and augment radiologists' workflow as new modalities and techniques enter the clinical workflow. ©RSNA, 2018.

Detailed electronic structure of three-dimensional Fermi surface and its sensitivity to charge density wave transition in ZrTe3 revealed by high resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy**Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB921301), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11574360, 11534007, and 11334010), and the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese

The detailed information of the electronic structure is the key to understanding the nature of charge density wave (CDW) order and its relationship with superconducting order in the microscopic level. In this paper, we present a high resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) study on the three-dimensional (3D) hole-like Fermi surface around the Brillouin zone center in a prototypical quasi-one-dimensional CDW and superconducting system ZrTe3. Double Fermi surface sheets are clearly resolved for the 3D hole-like Fermi surface around the zone center. The 3D Fermi surface shows a pronounced shrinking with increasing temperature. In particular, the quasiparticle scattering rate along the 3D Fermi surface experiences an anomaly near the charge density wave transition temperature of ZrTe3 (∼63 K). The signature of electron–phonon coupling is observed with a dispersion kink at ∼20 meV; the strength of the electron–phonon coupling around the 3D Fermi surface is rather weak. These results indicate that the 3D Fermi surface is also closely connected to the charge-density-wave transition and suggest a more global impact on the entire electronic structure induced by the CDW phase transition in ZrTe3.

Influence of 2D vs 3D imaging and professional experience on dental implant treatment planning.

This study investigated whether professional experience and type of image examination (panoramic radiography (PAN) or cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)) could influence the pre-surgical planning for dental implant treatment. Six dentists, from two different levels of experience (senior (Sr) and junior (Jr)) performed simulated pre-surgical planning by using PANs and after 1month, by using CBCTs, considering implant length (IL), implant width (IW), need for bone graft (BG), and other surgical procedures (OP). Bland-Altman test and Kappa coefficient were used to identify agreements. Bland-Altman test showed good agreement in the plans for inter-professional (i.e., Sr vs Jr) comparisons. Bland-Altman plots displayed intra-observer agreement (i.e., differences between PAN and CBCT), showing discrepancy between imaging modalities for IL and a tendency towards selecting larger dental implant options when using PAN and smaller options with CBCT. Kappa showed almost perfect (0.81-1.0) agreement between Jr and Sr for OP (PAN and CBCT). For BG, agreement was substantial (0.61-0.80) when planning was done with PAN and CBCT. Descriptive statistics showed evidence that when Jrs used CBCT, they no longer indicated the BG they had planned when they used PAN. There were differences in the pre-surgical planning for treatment with dental implants depending on the professional experience and the type of imaging examination used. Variation in dental implant planning can affect treatment time, cost, and morbidity in patients.

Supporting Mobile VR in LTE Networks

Mobile virtual reality (VR) headsets (e.g., Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR) seek to offer "anytime, anywhere" panorama, immerse 3D experiences for users. In this work, we study the viability of supporting mobile VR over operational 4G LTE networks, where the device provides pose information to the edge servers to offload graphical processing. We find that, contrary to common perceptions, wireless bandwidth is not the latency bottleneck for medium-quality VR. Instead, the signaling operations, which facilitate wireless data delivery, constitute a bulk portion of the latency. We report findings that challenge five common beliefs on VR network latency in LTE under both static and mobile scenarios, and quantify their impact. We design LTE-VR, a client-side solution to medium-quality VR over LTE. LTE-VR leverages cross-layer design and rich side channel information to reduce various latency sources in the signaling operations. Our prototype evaluation has confirmed its viability in 4G LTE. We discuss its applicability to the upcoming 5G.

Effectiveness of an Immersive Virtual Environment for Collaboration With Gesture Support Using Low-Cost Hardware

Since the advent of modern computer-aided design software, engineers have been divorced from the highly collaborative environment previously enjoyed. Today's highly complex designs require modern software tools and the realities of a global economy often constrain engineers to remote collaboration. These conditions make it highly impractical to collaborate locally around physical models. Various approaches to creating new collaboration tools and software, which alleviate these issues, have been tried previously. However, past solutions either used expensive hardware, which is not widely available, or used standard two-dimensional (2D) monitors to share three-dimensional (3D) information. Recently, new low-cost virtual reality (VR) hardware has been introduced, which creates a highly immersive 3D experience at a tiny fraction of the cost of previous hardware. This work demonstrates an immersive collaborative environment built using a network of this hardware, which allows users to interact with gestures virtually and conducts a study to show its advantages over traditional video conferencing software.

Radiotherapy setup displacements in breast cancer patients: 3D surface imaging experience.

In this study, we intend to compare two different setup procedures for female breast cancer patients. Imaging in radiotherapy provides a precise localization of the tumour, increasing the accuracy of the treatment delivery in breast cancer. Twenty breast cancer patients who underwent whole breast radiotherapy (WBRT) were selected for this study. Patients were divided into two groups of ten. Group one (G1) was positioned by tattoos and then the patient positioning was adjusted with the aid of AlignRT (Vision RT, London, UK). In group two (G2), patients were positioned only by tattoos. For both groups, the first 15 fractions were analyzed, a daily kilovoltage (kV) cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) image was made and then the rotational and translational displacements and, posteriorly, the systematic (Σ) and random (σ) errors were analyzed. The comparison of CBCT displacements for the two groups showed a statistically significant difference in the translational left-right (LR) direction (ρ=0.03), considering that the procedure with AlignRT system has smaller lateral displacements. The results of systematic (Σ) and random (σ) errors showed that for translational displacements the group positioned only by tattoos (G2) demonstrated higher values of errors when compared with the group positioned with the aid of AlignRT (G1). AlignRT could help the positioning of breast cancer patients; however, it should be used with another imaging method.

Quality of Experience in a Stereoscopic Multiview Environment

In this paper, we investigate how visualization factors, such as disparity, mobility, angular resolution, and viewpoint interpolation, influence the quality of experience (QoE) in a stereoscopic multiview environment. In order to do so, we set up a dedicated testing room and conducted subjective experiments. We also developed a framework that emulates a supermultiview environment. This framework can be used to investigate and assess the effects of angular resolution and viewpoint interpolation on the QoE produced by multiview systems, and provide relevant cues as to how the baselines of cameras and interpolation strategies in such systems affect user experience. Aspects such as visual comfort, model fluidity, sense of immersion, and the three-dimensional (3D) experience as a whole have been assessed for several test cases. Obtained results suggest that user experience in an motion parallax environment is not as critically influenced by configuration parameters such as disparity as initially thought. In addition, extensive subjective tests have indicated that while users are very sensitive to angular resolution in multiview 3D systems, this sensitivity tends not to be as critical when a user is performing a task that involves a great amount of interaction with the multiview content. These tests have also indicated that interpolating intermediate viewpoints can be effective in reducing the required view density without degrading the perceived QoE.

Integrating a LCA tool with a design platform towards a sustainable-aware PSS design: application in a FabLAB environment

The increasing importance of PSSs as business solution and their link with sustainability issues make it important to develop proper IT tools aimed at supporting the evaluation of their environmental impact. In this regard, commercial tools feature two main drawbacks: (i) they are built around the product concept and can hardly be adapted to the intangible part of a PSS and (ii) they are typically stand-alone tools that can not be easily integrated with design tools such as PLM systems, CAD or production planning and simulation tools. In this paper, a tool specifically thought to perform LCA-like analysis during the design phase of PSSs, the MaGA tool, is presented along with its integration with the 3D EXPERIENCE collaborative design platform. A 3D-printed robotic arm has been chosen as an example to show how the LCA analysis is performed with MaGA and how the integration with the design platform takes place. Even if further experimentation is needed to fine-tune the tool, first empirical evidences are promising.

An ecological community becoming: Language learning as first-order experiencing with place and mobile technologies

This work looks at how language learners’ experiential engagement with place is achieved through design. It proposes a new language learning model, one that emerges through the availability and support of mobile technologies, and in which semiotic resources and learners’ participation in and experience of events are central. In this model, language learning is languaging in place, where place is a 3D holographic experience. Within such place and through such experience, knowing co-arises with design, place-based interactive experiences with others, and through mobile game narrative. The findings also suggest experiencing events together creates community, one that is emergent, dynamic, place-making and ecological in nature. Drawing on the constraints and affordances of community gives rise to linguistic choices and skilled linguistic action. By employing an eclectic toolkit from multimodal analysis, cognitive event analysis, and communicative project, we describe our mobile game design and describe our analysis of the game playing process to explain how we conceptualize the relationship between language learning, place, events and mobile technologies.

Enabling the digital fashion consumer through fit and sizing technology

Online fashion retailing is a major growth area. Innovative online fit and sizing technologies that facilitate purchase continue to develop and launch, however, problems associated with digital expectations of fit and size in consumer decision-making remain unresolved. This research focuses on 20 prominent fit and size technologies from a sample of 30 and uses content analysis to examine website design and operation. Content analysis, combined with an extended literature review, enables the linking of academic theory and practice. The research provides the basis for a discussion of best practice utilisation of fit and sizing technology through the Omni-fit model, which accounts for the combination of technological approaches and the emerging influence of augmented and virtual reality fashion technology. The results include the need for improvements to 3D visualisation, user experience, and online customer relationship management of existing websites, aligned with Omni-channel retailing practice.