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. 2023 Nov;18(11):2013-2022.
doi: 10.1007/s11548-023-02851-z. Epub 2023 Mar 3.

Design of a virtual data shelf to effectively explore a large database of 3D medical surface models in VR

M Allgaier #  1   2 , L Spitz #  3   4 , D Behme  5   6 , A Mpotsaris  7 , P Berg  5   8 , B Preim  9   5 , S Saalfeld  9   5
Affiliations

Design of a virtual data shelf to effectively explore a large database of 3D medical surface models in VR

M Allgaier et al. Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

Purpose: Medical researchers deal with a large amount of patient data to improve future treatment decisions and come up with new hypotheses. To facilitate working with a large database containing many patients and parameters, we propose a virtual data shelf, displaying the 3D anatomical surface models in an immersive VR environment.

Methods: Thereby, different functionalities such as sorting, filtering and finding similar cases are included. To provide an appropriate layout and arrangement of 3D models that optimally supports working with the database, three layouts (flat, curved and spherical) and two distances are evaluated. A broad audience study with 61 participants was conducted to compare the different layouts based on their ease of interaction, to get an overview and to explore single cases. Medical experts additionally evaluated medical use cases.

Results: The study revealed that the flat layout with small distance is significantly faster in providing an overview. Applying the virtual data shelf to the medical use case intracranial aneurysms, qualitative expert feedback with two neuroradiologists and two neurosurgeons was gathered. Most of the surgeons preferred the curved and spherical layouts.

Conclusion: Our tool combines benefits of two data management metaphors, resulting in an efficient way to work with a large database of 3D models in VR. The evaluation gives insight into benefits of layouts as well as possible use cases in medical research.

Keywords: Database visualization; Virtual reality; Visualization techniques.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors state no conflict of interest. This work is partly funded by the BMBF within the Forschungscampus STIMULATE (grant no. 13GW0473A) and the DFG (SA 3461/3–1). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants involved informed consent and were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The virtual data shelf (flat) after similarity calculation. A Main Menu, B filtering and sorting menu, C grab area, D selected case, E case used for similarity, F similarity visualization, G info panel, H next page. A detailed view of a 3D aneurysm model of the case by G with relevant surrounding vessels is in the left-hand corner
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Three layouts: flat, curved and spherical
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Study procedure: a Task 1: pre-attentive search (yellow: first item, red: second item) and b Task 2: attentive search. The search items are white cones with black lines. Selected item are highlighted in blue
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Rating of the layouts from E1 regarding their suitability to get an overview and for exploration
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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