HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

ASSIGNMENT – I

Submitted by

MOHAN RAJ G

141cs189
Virtual Reality:

The definition of virtual reality comes, naturally, from the definitions for both ‘virtual’
and ‘reality’. The definition of ‘virtual’ is near and reality is what we experience as human
beings. So the term ‘virtual reality’ basically means ‘near-reality’. This could, of course, mean
anything but it usually refers to a specific type of reality emulation.

We know the world through our senses and perception systems. In school we all learned
that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. These are however only our most
obvious sense organs. The truth is that humans have many more senses than this, such as a sense
of balance for example. These other sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory
information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment
to our minds.

Everything that we know about our reality comes by way of our senses. In other words, our
entire experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains sense-
making mechanisms for that information. It stands to reason then, that if you can present your
senses with made-up information, your perception of reality would also change in response to it.
You would be presented with a version of reality that isn’t really there, but from your perspective
it would be perceived as real. Something we would refer to as a virtual reality.

So, in summary, virtual reality entails presenting our senses with a computer generated
virtual environment that we can explore in some fashion.

Virtual Reality in Medical Applicalication:

Human simulation software

One example of this is the HumanSim system which enables doctors, nurses and other medical
personnel to interact with others in an interactive environment. They engage in training scenarios
in which they have to interact with a patient but within a 3D environment only. This is an
immersive experience which measures the participant’s emotions via a series of sensors.
Virtual reality diagnostics

Virtual reality is often used as a diagnostic tool in that it enables doctors to arrive at a diagnosis
in conjunction with other methods such as MRI scans. This removes the need for invasive
procedures or surgery.

Virtual robotic surgery

A popular use of this technology is in robotic surgery. This is where surgery is performed by
means of a robotic device – controlled by a human surgeon, which reduces time and risk of
complications. Virtual reality has been also been used for training purposes and, in the field of
remote telesurgery in which surgery is performed by the surgeon at a separate location to the
patient.

Healthcare applications have already been used for diagnosis.

The problem-solution of remote patient support, prophylaxis, diagnosis, cure and

rehabilitation could have lessen the acuity of the problem of delivery qualitative medical service,
to some extent, especially, in condition of a high deficit of medical staff and the decrease of its
qualification. Probably, the solution lies in developing some medical assistance application.Now,
it has become presumable that one of the catalysts means of support the patient could become
surgery with the application of virtual tools.

It would be great to develop a virtual reality application, which will define the
tomography, better perception of three dimensional world, the app that can measure the level of
sugar in blood, respiration rate or even to accurately take the blood pressure, smart systems of
the integration of the patients symptoms, case history, and genomics to secure healthcare at a
long distance.

Imagine healthcare application that enables you to receive in a high quality tomographic images,
three-dimensional data of X-ray machines, ultrasonic scanning. Wouldn’t it help you to give a
presumptive diagnosis or consultation, instantly, without the matter of presence of the patient.
The ability of this medical assistance application to use the extended specter of received data
about the patient will also give the possibility to get an effective solution to find a specialist at a
remote location.

By remotely assessing the physiological parameters of the patient such as cardiac contractions, or
blood pressure would help to gain even a perfect remote consultation for the further process of
treatment. This approach of online monitoring would provide the support to transfer the data and
the information about patient’s state. The inquiry of the patient, his examination would be a nice
supplement for the remote treatment.

Suppose you happen to be in a situation, when there is a high need to get a consultation from a
qualified doctor and he is the only one to give an accurate diagnosis. There is no possibility to
reach that destination, and it happen for you to have an iPhone or iPad. What do you think?
Would it be better to have an application which can render all your medical reports a doctor
needs in digital format?

If a doctor wants to know blood pressure he will get it and will analyze, cardiac contractions, an
X-ray everything is at doctor’s disposal.

Technical data for virtual reality devices

Display screens
Usual screen resolution: 1024×768 or 1280×1024 pixels
In stereoscopic mode the vertical resolution is halved: 1024×384 or 1280×512
For head mounted displays resolution is usually lower: starts at 400×200 pixels
Necessary update rate for smooth visual appearance is miniumum 25 Hz (monitor refresh rate for
flicker free viewing is much higher—72-100 Hz—which also doubles in stereoscopic mode)
Force feedback
Maximum exertable force: 5-25 N
Continuous exertable force: 1-3 N
Usually 3-6 degrees of freedom force driven
Active working space usually from 15 cm×15 cm×15 cm up to 50 cm×50 cm×100 cm
Necessary force update rate for vibration free force sensation: 500-1000 Hz
Tracking devices
Position accuracy: 0.1-2 mm, 0.1-1°
Working range: 1-10 m
Update rate 20-500 Hz