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Virtual and Augmented Reality for Educational Anatomy

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Digital Anatomy

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

Recent progress in VR and AR hardware enables a wide range of educational applications. Anatomy education, where the complex spatial relations of the human anatomy need to be imagined, may benefit from the immersive experience. Also the integration of virtual information and real information, e.g., muscles and bone overlaid on the user’s body, are beneficial for imaging the interplay of various anatomical structures. VR and AR systems for anatomy education compete with other media to support anatomy teaching, such as interactive 3D visualization and anatomy textbooks. We discuss the constraints that must be considered when designing VR and AR systems that enable efficient knowledge transfer.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.vuforia.com/.

  2. 2.

    https://www.visiblebody.com/.

  3. 3.

    https://www.diffuse.ch/.

  4. 4.

    https://dbe.unibas.ch/en/research/flagship-project-miracle/.

  5. 5.

    http://www.web3d.org/working-groups/humanoid-animation-h-anim.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Virtual Anatomy team (Wolfgang D’Hanis, Lars Dornheim, Kerstin Kellermann, Alexandra Kohrmann, Philipp Pohlenz, Thomas Roskoden and Hermann-Josef Rothkötter) for many discussions about anatomy teaching, Nigel John, Benjamin Köhler, Maria Luz, Timo Ropinski, Florian Heinrich, Vuthea Chheang, and Noeska Smit for fruitful discussions on the chapter as well as Steven Birr, Konrad Mühler, Daniel Pohlandt, Felix Ritter, Aylin Albrecht and Anna Schmeier for their implementations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Simulation and Graphics, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Bernhard Preim, Patrick Saalfeld & Christian Hansen

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  1. Bernhard Preim
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  2. Patrick Saalfeld
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  3. Christian Hansen
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Correspondence to Bernhard Preim .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Paris Descartes University, Paris, France

    Jean-François Uhl

  2. INESC-ID Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Joaquim Jorge

  3. INESC-ID Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Daniel Simões Lopes

  4. Department of Informatics, University of Madeira, Funchal, Portugal

    Pedro F. Campos

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Preim, B., Saalfeld, P., Hansen, C. (2021). Virtual and Augmented Reality for Educational Anatomy. In: Uhl, JF., Jorge, J., Lopes, D.S., Campos, P.F. (eds) Digital Anatomy . Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61905-3_16

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