Collaborative Virtual Environments for Jaw Surgery Simulation

Abstract

Jaw surgery is a challenging surgical technique to study, due to the small case numbers. Surgeons may never have real experience with the procedure. This causes delays in the critical procedures and may affect the patient’s speech development. Virtual reality (VR) is a great tool to simulate surgical operations. Previously, we introduced a virtual reality system for jaw surgery simulation. In this work, we performed an additional evaluation of our system to realize its limitation and improvable elements. Results show that its potential as a training tool is limited. Mainly due to the lack of collaborative interaction. Trainers outside of the VR environment can only communicate with VR users through verbal communication. However surgical techniques are impractical to teach via this method. To address this shortcoming, we surveyed works on collaborative features on virtual reality systems. Other proposed improvement features are advanced input devices and artificial intelligence. The improvements can lift the realism of the VR system.