Feature
A new reality
Augmented and virtual reality in the IR suite By Jennifer J. Salopek
P
icture yourself performing a procedure. Rather than having to look away from the patient to see imaging displayed on
a separate, 2D screen, you can see the information from the CT scan in three dimensions, overlaid on the patient’s anatomy. Or consider your experience as a medical student. How much richer would your learning experience have been (or be) if you could view human anatomy immersively, in three dimensions? These exciting scenarios are steadily becoming the new reality— augmented and virtual reality, that is.
First developed for video gaming, virtual reality (VR) provides the ability to see in three dimensions and 360 degrees by
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means of a headset—a totally immersive experience. Augmented reality (AR), which isn’t as immersive as VR, provides the ability to see information in 3D without a head-mounted display. AR carries less incidence of cybersickness, a condition that can affect up to 30 percent of the population.
A number of companies are betting on the future of VR and its seemingly limitless possibilities:
• Facebook purchased headset startup Oculus VR for $2 billion in 2014.
• In 2016, Microsoft introduced HoloLens, which it describes as “mixed reality.” Holographic images are displayed in the center frame
of a headset, preserving the user’s peripheral vision. Microsoft calls HoloLens a “totally untethered, fully contained holographic computer.”
• Although Google Glass was not successful in the consumer market, last fall the company announced plans for Glass Enterprise Edition, designed specifically for the workplace.
Researchers around the world are working on how to apply these technologies to medicine in general and to IR in particular, with potential for medical education, procedure planning and even in performing procedures. One place where this exploration is being carried out is the Maryland Blended Reality Center (MBRC) at the University of Maryland in College Park. The MBRC brings the university’s visual computing experts together with emergency medicine professionals at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore to advance visual computing for health care. Research and development projects include military medicine, telemedicine, simulation and readiness training, critical care patient diagnostics, and non-opioid pain management, as well as human anatomy education. Much of
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