This article explores the pros and cons of virtual reality simulators, their abilities to train and assess surgical skills, and their potential future applications. Computer-based virtual reality simulators and more conventional box trainers are compared and contrasted. The virtual reality simulator provides objective assessment of surgical skills and immediate feedback further to enhance train...

Research Background This recently completed research project has resulted in the development of a wheelchair motion platform which, in conjunction with a virtual reality facility, can be used to address issues of accessibility in the built environment. This venture represents a collaborative effort between architects, bioengineers and user groups and has investigated topics related to platform ...

Augmented Reality (AR) is a growing area in virtual reality research. The world environment around us provides a wealth of information that is difficult to duplicate in a computer. This is evidenced by the worlds used in virtual environments. Either these worlds are very simplistic such as the environments created for immersive entertainment and games, or the system that can create a more reali...

This mixed methods study examined the effect of Astronaut Challenge, an immersive, flight-simulation-based learning program, on the collaborative learning process and science knowledge development of high-school students (9 graders). The study findings suggested that simulation-based collaborative learning activities promoted students’ scientific understanding about the dynamics of the space fl...

In driving simulation, simulator tilt is used to reproduce linear acceleration. In order to feel realistic, this tilt is performed at a rate below the tilt-rate detection threshold, which is usually assumed constant. However, it is known that many factors affect the threshold, like visual information, simulator motion in additional directions, or active vehicle control. Here we investigated the...

the last few years immersive virtual environment technology has matured to the point where industry researchers have begun using it for the design and evaluation of new systems. Immersive virtual environments have already been applied to a wide variety of domains , including automobile design, flight simulation, emergency rescue, and remote surgical training. As VEs move from research laborator...

This paper describes current research combining computer vision, virtual reality and kinesiology for analyzing the cephalo-ocular behavior of drivers in realistic driving contexts. The different components of the system are described and results are provided for each one. The ultimate goal of the system is to achieve automatic analysis of drivers’ behavior in order to design training programs t...

Feedback in surgical simulation has been limited to offline analysis of movement, time taken to complete simulation and in some cases a virtual playback of completed simulation tasks. In comparison to aircraft simulation, these feedback schemes are very rudimentary. Research in military simulations has shown that real time feedback significantly improves performance on the task at hand and lead...

This paper presents a generic method to evaluate virtual agents that aim at reproducing humans behaviors in an immersive virtual environment. We first use automated clustering of simulation logs to extract humans behaviors. We then propose an aggregation of the agents logs into those clusters to analyze the credibility of agents behaviors in terms of capacities, lacks, and errors by comparing t...