A human-machine interface for medical image analysis and visualization in virtual environments

Virtual worlds open new dimensions in human-machine and even human-human communication. Medicine is predestined to benefit from this new technology in many ways. For the field of visualization and analysis of tomography data, an application is introduced which expedites identification of spatial coherencies and exploration of pathological regions. To facilitate work in such an environment and to avoid long periods of accustoming, a human-oriented interface is required allowing physicians to interact as close to the real world as possible. Hand gesture recognition (with a data glove) and eye tracking (using biosignals) are essential parts to fulfil this demand. Their integration into the virtual environment as two components of the human-machine interface is presented.