Collaborative and immersive medical education in a virtual workbench environment

In this paper we introduce a framework for an advanced medical education in a table-type VR environment, which is based on an efficient deformable modeling for the interactive manipulation of soft tissues and a realistic motion simulation for dynamic human organs. The proposed framework includes two data storages with 3D/4D models and the 2D anatomic; information, and various functional modules that are used to effectively explain human organs by visualizing and synchronizing with the components in the data storages. In our VR environment, a table-type virtual workbench is effectively used for the collaborative and realistic presentation to a group of learners and the video-based tracking environment provides the convenience for a user to select and to manipulate a subject of learning.