Different examples of the use of recent technologies, based on virtual reality and augmented reality techniques, for the learning of medical students are presented. The use of different glasses, both virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as gloves with movement sensors, allow the user to enter a scenario very close to the real one, resulting in an improvement and optimisation of their learning. The use of these resources in different areas of medicine facilitates the acquisition of skills, for example in cardiac auscultation training in more dynamic learning of human anatomy, with three-dimensional images, or learning protocols for virtual surgical approaches, among many other possibilities. The satisfaction of the users who handled these devices was excellent, acquiring, in very short periods of time, practical skills in many of the actions carried out with these technologies.
TopIntroduction
Research into applications of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) techniques in medicine began more than 20 years ago. However, their use did not begin to be democratised until the hardware was powerful enough to provide good quality results and cheap enough to reach a larger audience.
So far, VR has been evolving and advancing along its own independent path, within a world with a strong tendency to display data, images, videos, etc., in a virtual format. This tendency to represent the real world in a virtual format has generated the need to develop increasingly more sophisticated software and hardware. The enormous realism achieved by current video games or movies, are good examples. On the other hand, the aim seeked with AR is precisely the opposite: to represent virtual information in a real environment. In other words, augmented reality is a technology that has advanced, so to speak, against the tide compared to other technologies. The most interesting thing about augmented reality is that the virtual information reaches the user in as simple and as natural way as possible. That is, AR is aimed to facilitate the user to perform any activity for which this enlargement of reality is necessary without distractions or interruptions.
The devices employed in VR and AR range from smartphones and tablets to a variety of glasses, stereoscopic vision goggles and gloves with hand movement sensors. All these different types of devices can be broadly grouped into five categories: fixed outdoor systems, fixed indoor systems, mobile outdoor systems, mobile indoor systems, and mobile indoor and outdoor systems. Of these possible devices, the ones that are currently receiving the greatest attention from developers are the mobile systems (both indoor and outdoor). The main reason is that mobile devices are already owned by a great number of users, so there is a greater demand of VR and AR solutions from the average non-specialised user.
Currently, the devices with the highest expectations are VR and AR glasses, as they allow the user to be hands-free while performing different interactive activities. These glasses need nothing more than a specific software application to operate them, which can be easily installed in a smartphone. In the mobile applications market, there are many virtual and augmented reality applications intended for entertainment such as video games or movies, although new entertainment focused applications appear each day. All these applications, from the simplest to the most cutting-edge, offer innovative solutions for medical training and other areas of health sciences.