Medical XR

About Medical XR:

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are both novel technologies allowing users to experience enhanced or virtual environments with the use of head-mounted displays. In VR a user wears a head-mounted display that allows complete immersion in a 3D world. Using controllers, objects may be picked up and manipulated in the same way an object would be in the real world. In AR the user has a transparent head-mounted display which overlays images and data onto the real world. Together, these two technologies are referred to as Extended Reality (XR), and they will open new avenues for the visualisation and analysis of data in the field of medicine.

Recent publications:

CSynth: an interactive modelling and visualization tool for 3D chromatin structure. (Bioinformatics, 2021)
Validating the accuracy of a novel virtual reality platform for determining implant orientation in simulated primary total hip replacement. (Digit Health, 2022)
Bioinformatics and the Metaverse: Are We Ready? (Frontiers in Bioinformatics, 2022)

Current Projects

BabelVR

import 3D images | HTC Vive

Our latest project, works with 3D image data (e.g. ultrasound, CT, MRI, microscopy) allowing researchers and clinicians to interact with complex imaging modalities in new intuitive ways.

StrokeVR

primary visual cortex

StrokeVR is showing promise in allowing researchers to probe damage to the visual processing area of the brain in stroke patients.

AescularVR

virtual training | hip replacement

Prior to total hip replacement, AescularVR can be used to plan operations in virtual reality. AescularVR can be used for any system that requires accurate registration of objects in 3D.

BreathlessVR

chronic breathlessness

Examining how the brain weights and combines different sensory inputs to create sensations of breathlessness.

CSynth

chromatin 3D structure visualisation

3D genome browser and real time chromatin restraint-based modeller to visualise dynamic models of chromatin capture data.

Funding

This work has been funded by:

John Fell OUP Research Fund
Oxford IT Innovation Award
Medical Research Council (MRC)

Oxford Medical XR Facility