Week 2: Summary
Merging Virtual Objects with Real World
One of the earliest and perhaps the most widely used result of live ultrasound is the visualization of a pregnant human subject. According to the current advances made and the work going on in this field clinical use of this technology is an area of intense research activity particularly in fetal anomaly scanning.
The paper talks about this goal of creating an “ultimate” 3D ultrasound system which displays 3D volume data in real time.
In order to achieve this the two core areas in which advances need to made are those of
1.) 3D volume data Acquisition
In order to reconstruct a 3D image from images of a lesser dimension, the location and orientation of the imaging primitive must be known. One of the main concerns in today’s realtime 3D imaging systems is the large amount of active channels needed to scan the volume. The paper touches upon the use of Explososcan which is a parallel processing technique used to return echoes to boost data acquisition rate to solve this very problem.
2.) 3D Volume data display
There is more than one way in which 3D images can be presented. This not only includes visual form but also presentation in the form of calculated values. Inorder to display the volume data low pass filtering techniques are used
Advantages of 3D Ultrasound :
Relatively safe compared to other imaging modalities.
Images are generated in real time.
Improvements in modalities such as MRI.
Disadvantages of 3D Ultrasound :
Low signal to noise ratio
Poor spatial resolution
Attenuation that increases with frequency and reflection and refraction problems
Various applications :
From my understanding the application still remain centered more or less toward medical implementations. The author lists the following,
Emergency Scenarios:
In case of mishaps, or natural calamities 3D ultrasound can be used to see through areas in the interior of building to improve rescue and support operations especially in places inaccessible and hazardous to human lives.
Surgery application:
Neurosurgery, foetal imaging, cardiology applications. It can used to image arteries other small sensitive organs that must be avoided during surgery.etc
Electronic application:
But according to me the greatest achievement will be made when 2D technology on portable devices like laptops,PDAs will be replaced by 3D.
Final Conclusions – Although technology advancements have led to high quality 2D imaging, a real-time 3D imaging system has not yet been implemented with a quality on par with 2D imaging. The author agrees with this when he states that this field is yet to flourish and is only at the initial stages with a lot to do yet.
Virtual Environment for Treating the Fear of Heights
This paper on Virtual Environment for Treating Fear of Heights according to me is a novel way of using Virtual Environments. It is interesting to know how Acrophobia is not only studied but too an extent cured by using Virtual Environments.
After evaluating which heights situation cause a patient anxiety a therapist would arrange therapy sessions for the patient to go through a number of exposures and adjustments to help the patient overcome his fear. The threat scale with each passing session would increment, starting from say a third floor window to a higher floor window virtual environment setup later on.
The author mentions the implementation of 3 environment for therapy including:
1.)An elevator
2.)A series of balconies
3.)A series of bridges (considered to be less scary)
The study seems robust and complete in itself because a series of experiments were conducted which included a series of screening questionnaire and evaluation of their panic level progressively.
The most remarkable aspect about this study is that it has helped prove that a person’s perceptions of physical world can be modified by experience in a virtual world. This can be used in treating numerous medical conditions and better understand human behavior and psychology in a controlled virtual environment which would replicate the behavior in the real world.
One question I would like to ask the author is if Virtual Environment is truly that efficient in solving certain medical conditions why haven’t we seen more of it. Is it because of the cost involved or scalability?
Designing Interactive Theme Park Rides
This paper describes an interactive theme park ride based on the classic Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. Its a 4 player immersive adventure game in which 1 guest steers the ship while the rest use cannons to attack virtual enemy pirate ships, sea monsters etc in order to defend as much gold as possible.
While the players think that they are completely in control in the game environment the developers have used interesting concepts like architectural weenies, guide ships, sneak attacks etc to guide the game play and establish some level ground. The 5 minute experience starts of with first a non-interactive sequence with Jolly Roger the ghost pirate and then climaxes in the last 30 seconds ending in two ways: victory or defeat both having their highlights.
The highlights of the game are intuitive user interface, easy understanding of what’s expected and the immersive environment coupled with the motion base to feel every cannon hit, every wave along with proper balance, script, audio and artwork are its star features.It also emphasizes on the fact that a visit to ant theme park is fun if you go with a small group.
The attention given to detail is very evident from the fact that it took almost an entire year perfecting the underlying dynamics of the gameplay.
We have seen how interactive and immersive environment prove to be successful in the entertainment field one question I would like to ask the author is will it ever be feasible to get such an experience in day to day commercial application or is there no need for that as of now.
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