Immersive virtual reality for visualizing flow through an artery

We present an immersive system for exploring numerically simulated flow data through a model of a coronary artery graft. This tightly-coupled interdisciplinary project is aimed at understanding how to reduce the failure rate of these grafts. The visualization system provides a mechanism for exploring the effect of changes to the geometry, to the flow, and for exploring potential sources of future lesions. The system uses gestural and voice interactions exclusively, moving away from more traditional windows/icons/menus/point-and-click (WIMP) interfaces. We present an example session using the system and discuss our experiences developing, testing, and using it. We describe some of the interaction and rendering techniques that we experimented with and describe their level of success. Our experience suggests that systems like this are exciting to clinical researchers, but conclusive evidence of their value is not yet available.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: VISUALIZATION
• Authors: Andrew S. Forsberg, David H. Laidlaw, Andries van Dam, Robert M. Kirby, George E. Karniadakis, Jonathan L. Elion
• Keywords: Coronary Artery Graft, Exploring, Tightly-coupled Interdisciplinary Project, Visualization, VISUALIZATION 2000