VizWorld.com

Bangor University staff have created a virtual pin-hole surgery trainer that combined 3D glasses and a projected display with force-feedback technology to create a virtual reality patient they can practice on, that generates real feedback on the needle during the procedure.

“What we’re trying to do is create a virtual patient that a doctor or nurse can practice on,” explained Prof Nigel John from the university’s School of Computer Science.

“Rather than them having to practice on you or me, they can have a virtual patient that doesn’t scream too much, to work out how to do a procedure.”

This type of procedure is common in interventional radiology, where tiny punctures are used in combination with radiological scans to better locate their targets.

via BBC News – Welsh ‘super-needle’ to aid pin-hole surgery training.

Hardware, Science biomed, training, virtual reality

Cryosurgery, placing cryoprobes in cancerous tumors to instantly freeze and kill them while still inside the body, is a new technique to fight cancer, but training new surgeons in this technology is difficult because of the potential to destroy healthy tissue and cause other potentially deadly complications.  Carnegie Mellon Mechanical Engineering professors Yoed Rabin and Kenji Shimada have created a virtual surgery training simulation with the help of a $1.3Million grant from the National Cancer Institute to make training much safer and easier.

Dr. Shimada, in a news release, said the process will allow surgeons to place probes without risk to patients, visualize frozen regions with intuitive 3D computer graphics and benchmark their performance with hundreds of cases stored in a database. “It is a motivational and effective way of learning and improving their surgical skills,” he said.

via CMU expert works on tool to train cryosurgeons.

Science biomed, interactive, simulation, training

Anatomy Tools has announced a new suite of 5 workshops specializing in Human and Creature anatomy ranging from beginner to advanced.  Each class only holds 20 members and signups are open now.

“We specialize in teaching artists anatomy, it’s what we do! because without question, anatomy is “the” fundamental foundation for artists who wish to master the recreation of organic forms. We can identify with each of you where your anatomy skills are now & give you the fast track to where you want to go, & why not learn in 1 week, what it can take artists years to accomplish”

via Anatomy Tools – Workshops.

Graphics anatomy, class, model, training

Less than a month after the release of Epic’s Unreal Development Kit, they’ve partnered with 3D Buzz to release a massive collection of 130 training videos covering everything from the User Interface to Lighting to Physics and Fluids.

Known for high-quality Video Training Modules and the Mastering Unreal Technology book series, 3D Buzz has put together these videos that guide you through the basics of the Unreal Engine editing suite, as well as working with a simple game project.

The file format is MP4. No other codecs are required.

The videos are downloadable in ZIP archives for easy storage.

via UDN – Three – VideoTutorials.

Graphics 3dbuzz, training, unreal

If you’re considering a job in industrial process control, then you might want to brush up on your Halo skills as new technology from “Eyesim” integrates virtual reality headsets and simulations into training.

By merging virtual plant imagery with screens from asset management or other application software, the Invensys solution creates a computer-generated representation of either a real or proposed process plant. Using a stereoscopic headset, trainees enter a completely immersive environment in which they can move throughout the plant. Such freedom is possible because the virtual environment is rendered at 60 frames per second, significantly faster than what can be achieved by traditional, non real-time rendering.

On a technical level, the system works with a regular PC containins a “specialized graphics card” running a 120Hz projector.  The glasses run in the $600 range (active head-tracked stereo I’m guessing) and the projector about $4000.

via Immersive virtual reality comes to industrial training – 2009-09-24 10:46:10 CDT | Control Engineering.

Hardware, Science eyesim, training, virtual reality

Autodesk has launched a new 3dsMax certification program to accompany their existing certifications for other applications, giving you another way to fluff your resume with your amazing graphics capabilities.

Autodesk certifications are a reliable validation of an individual’s skills and knowledge that demonstrate expertise in a specific area,” said Paul Mailhot, senior director of Autodesk Learning. “More than just enhancing an individual’s credibility, certification can lead to accelerated professional development and serve as a differentiator that helps people to stand out from the crowd. These differentiators are important in any job market, but never more so than during a down economy.”

If you’re attending Autodesk University, then you’ll have a chance to take the exams there.  Get all the details here.

via CGSociety – Autodesk Certification.

Graphics 3dsmax, autodesk, certification, training

Use of Second Life, the popular free virtual environment “sandbox”, in medical education has been discussed before.  It’s different, however, to hear an actual MD talking about how great it is.  In a new article by Peter Yellowless MD, he discusses his experiences using and creating medical training environments in Second Life with great results:

I have been using Second Life as a teaching and learning environment for several years now. With colleagues I have created a “virtual hallucinations” environment, which demonstrates the lived experience of psychosis and allows participants who travel through the environment to experience both visual and auditory hallucinations; visions and voices. We used this environment to teach this experience to our medical and psychology students.

But that’s not all:

With the California Department of Health and other colleagues I have created a virtual bioterrorism crisis clinic to train health workers, and more recently, as part of our Health Informatics Certificate Program, with University of California Davis Extension, we have taught informatics students in a virtual conference center on our own private island; Davis Island. Students find the environment straightforward to learn to navigate, and within a week of our informatics students being introduced to the environment they were able to travel and tour around Second Life with the rest of us with ease.

Hit his website for the full story.

via InformationAgeHealth: Virtual Reality Medical Education in Second Life.

Science biomed, secondlife, training

Twelve lucky participants will have the opportunity to take the Escape Studios Skillset Visual Effects course, an 18 week course at the London Studios, for free thanks to the Skillset Film Skills Fund, and even receive minimum wage throughout their attendance.

The Skillset Visual Effects course will offer a rich mix of intensive practical training and industry work experience, providing participants with the skills and confidence for career success. Participants will receive comprehensive training in the use of Maya and Nuke and learn all of the camera tracking, lighting and compositing skills needed to create fully integrated visual effects shots to a professional standard.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the 12 lucky people, full details and applications are available on their website.

via Escape Studios Skillset Visual Effects Course.

Graphics course, education, escape studios, training, vfx

CGSociety has announced a pair of new workshops available for enrollment.  First is “Matte Painting” form David Luong:

Matte Painter, compositor and VFX guru David Luong is back with his updated Matte Painting workshop. This is an intermediate to advanced level matte painting class using Adobe Photoshop as well as using AfterEffects and/or Nuke to composite your design into your final project using Maya. Beginners are welcome as topics covered and class discussions are personal and open to different levels of knowledge. Though it has some beginner’s topics, it will quickly get into more advanced areas.

The second is Maya Scripting, with both MELScript and Python.

Lead Creature Technical Director and Maya guru Todd Widup is back to l take you under the hood of Scripting in Maya with MELScript and Python. Todd will take you into the top layer of the programming guts and scripts in both MELScript as well as the newly introduced Python script within Maya. By opening artists to the power of scripting, they can enhance their workflow with new automated tools, create macros to do repeated functions, as well as create interfaces and learn to interact with the operating system.

Both classes start on September 7th, and run for 8 weeks.  Hit CGSociety for full details.

CGWorkshops.

Graphics education, maya, painting, training, workshop

If you couldn’t make it to SIGGRAPH, or couldn’t make it to all of NVidia’s presentations (and they had several), then hit up the NVidia Developer Zone where they’ve posted slides for their talks.

NVIDIA @ SIGGRAPH 2009.

Hardware, Science nvidia, siggraph, training