Virtual Reality (VR) has now emerged as a promising tool in many domains of therapy and rehabilitation (Rizzo, Schultheis, Kerns & Mateer, in press; Weiss & Jessel, 1998; Zimand, Anderson, Gershon, Graap, Hodges, & Rothbaum, 2002). Continuing advances in VR technology along with concomitant system cost reductions have supported the development of more usable, useful, and accessible VR systems t...

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...

A software system of the medical computer teaching simulator for ophthalmology with virtual reality and its implementation are considered in the paper. The simulator is oriented for professional skills training of medical university students.

This paper presents a new method for rendering views, especially those of large-scale scenes, such as broad city landscapes. The main contribution of our method is that we are able to easily render any view from an arbitrary point to an arbitrary direction on the ground in a virtual environment. Our method belongs to the family of work that employs plenoptic functions; however, unlike other wor...

This paper presents an immersive system for virtual reality-based training of operators. Recent studies show that virtual reality simulations may be helpful in different fields, namely, industry and education. In this particular case we present a simulator for the training of tower cranes operators reducing their costs and risks. This immersive system integrates real-time 3D computer graphics w...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of virtual reality training on an actual laparoscopic operation. DESIGN Prospective randomised controlled and blinded trial. SETTING Seven gynaecological departments in the Zeeland region of Denmark. PARTICIPANTS 24 first and second year registrars specialising in gynaecology and obstetrics. INTERVENTIONS Proficiency based virtual reality simulator trainin...

A novel low-cost flight simulator with the development goals cost effectiveness and high performance has been realized for meeting the huge pilot training needs of airlines. The simulator consists of an aircraft dynamics model, a sophisticated designed low-profile electrical driven motion system with a subsided cabin, a mixed reality based semi-virtual cockpit system, a control loading system a...

OBJECTIVE The present study compared the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) simulator for training phlebotomy with that of a more traditional approach using simulated limbs. BACKGROUND Phlebotomy, or drawing blood, is one of the most common medical procedures; yet, there are no universal standards for training and assessing performance. The absence of any standards can lead to injuries a...