Application of virtual reality technology to medical education, research and pathologic diagnosis

在资助期内，我们开发了以下系统：(1)通过从ct扫描仪或MRI获得的人体器官DICOM数据的体绘制，为教育或诊断目的组成（静态和动态）三维内容；(2)通过心脏跳动内容物的运动有助于早期诊断循环系统疾病；(3)模拟交通事故患者骨盆周围复杂骨折的手术；(4)将实时（或存档）的三维操作场景展示到教室的立体系统上，而不是手术室。来自两台摄像机的视频信号被固定在用于显微手术的立体显微镜上，以“并排”的格式编码成帧，并发送到北内国内局域网；在教室或视听教室里，并排的信号被解码到左右两个投影仪上，使三维图像可视化。此外，我们还测试了一个系统：(5)使用‘ RasMol’来交互式地可视化蛋白质的三维图形，这两个系统都可以从Web of Protein Data Base （PDB）下载。我们将这些系统整合到北中电子学习系统（KELS）的“微型系统”中，以便：(1)教授可以在分散的校园中同时给学生讲课；(2)错过讲座或不能很好理解讲座内容的学生，可以自主学习，对讲座中使用的场景和/或教材进行互动操作，这些教材已存档在KELS微型系统中；(3)可以扩展到北中大学周边地区的虚拟医院。2005年，我们在日本国立新兴科学与创新博物馆和町田市图形艺术博物馆举办的cellfesta上展示了一些细胞和人体器官的三维内容。

During the funded terms, we have developed following systems : (1)to compose (both of repose and dynamic) three-dimensional contents for educational or diagnostic purposes, by volume-rendering DICOM data of human organs, which are obtained from the CT-scanner or MRI ; (2)to facilitate early diagnoses of circulatory diseases from movements of beating heart content ; (3)to simulate the operation of complex fracture around pelvis of patient, who suffered from traffic accident ; and (4)to demonstrate real-time (or archived) three-dimensional scene of operation onto a stereoscopic system in a schoolroom, apart from operation rooms. Video signals from two cameras, fixed onto a stereoscopic microscope for micro-surgery, are encoded into frames in a ‘side-by-side' format and fired to Kitasato domestic LAN ; In the schoolroom or audiovisual rooms, side-by-side signals are decoded to two projectors for right and left eyes to visualize three-dimensional picture. Additionally, we tested a system : (5)to interactively visualize three-dimensional figures of proteins, using ‘RasMol', both of which can be down loaded from the Web of Protein Data Base (PDB). We integrated these systems into the "miniature system" of Kitasato e-Learning system (KELS), so that : (1)a professor can give a lecture simultaneously to students in dispersed campuses ; (2)students, who missed the lecture or could not understand the lecture well, can study by themselves, interactively operating the scene of and/or education materials used in the lecture, which have been archived in the KELS miniature system ; and (3)it can be extended to a virtual hospital in the area surrounding Kitasato University. We demonstrated some of the three-dimensional contents of cells and human organs in the cellfesta that was held in the Japanese National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation and Machida City museum of Graphic Arts in 2005.