Design and Evaluation of VR and AR Simulator Modules

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The research proposal spans an overarching project on the design and evaluation of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality based Simulators. The proposed research will complements work being done through separately-funded projects on the design and evaluation of surgical simulator modules for a specific set of scenarios. In particular, the proposed project will develop generalized visualization and evaluation methodologies; generalizing case studies of Neurosurgical training simulators for training Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy, Angiography-based catheter navigation, and aneurysm coiling; and training of Colectomies, and Prostate Biopsy procedures). In each of these cases, the goals of the DG-based research projects undertaken by HQP will be to develop and evaluate modules that extend from current simulators, or for developing GPU-based algorithms for 3D interactive computer graphics. We are establishing an approach using a formal Task Analysis phase as part of the Requirements Analysis phase for the complex tasks being trained within these curricula. The task analysis is important, as it allows us to examine the task requirements from an information-processing standpoint; identifying the particular Perceptual, Cognitive, and Motor capacities and constraints on the trainee (the main user of the system), from the standpoint of Cognitive Science and Experimental Psychology. We take this approach seriously, as it allows us to formalize the requirements of the main software classes in the simulator systems, in terms of the input-output requirements for the View classes, the Controller Classes, and those of the Model (MVC paradigm for design and development). This characterization provides us with a Hierarchical Task Decomposition for the simulator modules, which is precise and explicit, to the point where the trainees' Index of Performance can be operationalized as metrics to be logged within the simulator modules. These metrics span the abstraction hierarchy (in the sense posed by Simon and Albus) so that low-level technical skills performance can be addressed by extending the classical Fitts paradigm which respects the speed-accuracy tradeoff, and also to generalize to higher levels of the abstraction involving 3D spatial reasoning, path planning, and sub-task sequencing. Higher-level decision-theoretic skills, and knowledge-level learning, can also be evaluated in terms of experimental paradigms operationalizing task completion times and error rates as analogous metrics. These methodological developments lead naturally to very precisely specified modules that provide natural projects for HQPs at all levels. We have a number of graduate students who will be working mid-way through their thesis this year, and this proposal would fund new students who would come on-stream within this active and interdisciplinary environment. We are also working with several industrial partners on these ongoing projects: Digital Extremes, Inc, a London-Ontario-based digital video game company employing 175 people (well known for their 'Bioshock' and 'Star Trek' titles); the National Research Council ("NeuroTouch" neurosurgical simulator); Christie Digital Displays and Christie Medical (on their VeinViewer and projector-based systems for Augmented Reality environments). In addition to exposure to these industry-based environments, our HQP are also able to network with other graduate students and academics through our involvement with the National Centres of Excellence project on Graphics and New Media (NCE-Grand), in which this applicant is Project Leader on HLTHSIM. The applicant is also a theme co-leader on our ORF-funded research project at CSTAR entitled, "Effective Systems for Procedure-Specific Healthcare Simulation".