Medical Procedural Training in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality tools have seen a large increase in interest over the last few years. Educators have been early adopters of such tools, and research have shown that students enjoy training in a virtual world using virtual reality devices. New tools for interacting with the virtual world, like the controllers offered by virtual reality products like HTC Vive and Oculus Rift opens for more immersive applications. In addition, the usage of real world medical imaging in virtual applications is a good way to further peak the users interest and involvement. This thesis explores the possibilities such hardware and data usage opens for a procedural training application in virtual reality, and the research question was worded as follows: \textit{Which functionality are required to create an application using general purpose virtual reality equipment for medical procedural training supported by imaging data}. In order to answer, an application where users are guided through a neurosurgical pre operation phase was implemented, and tested on two occasions. A video presenting the core functionality may be found here \url{https://goo.gl/5djsSd}. The feedback and observations from user tests showed that users were quickly able to interact sufficiently in the virtual environment. Observations also shows that it is indeed possible to utilize real world medical data to support a learning applications. We conclude that it is indeed possible to create a learning application using general purpose virtual reality equipment supported with real world medical imaging.