Collaborative voxel-based surgical virtual environments
Acosta, E.; Muniz, G.; Armonda, R.; Bowyer, M.; Liu, A.
Studies in Health Technology and Informatics 132: 1-3
2008
ISSN/ISBN: 0926-9630 PMID: 18391245 Document Number: 617125
Virtual Reality-based surgical simulators can utilize Collaborative Virtual Environments (C-VEs) to provide team-based training. To support real-time interactions, C-VEs are typically replicated on each user's local computer and a synchronization method helps keep all local copies consistent. This approach does not work well for voxel-based C-VEs since large and frequent volumetric updates make synchronization difficult. This paper describes a method that allows multiple users to interact within a voxel-based C-VE for a craniotomy simulator being developed. Our C-VE method requires smaller update sizes and provides faster synchronization update rates than volumetric-based methods. Additionally, we address network bandwidth/latency issues to simulate networked haptic and bone drilling tool interactions with a voxel-based skull C-VE.