The hyper hospital-virtual reality based medical system on the computer network-its concept and user-configurable virtual world creating system

We have been developing a novel medical care system which is constructed on an electronic or computerized information network using virtual reality as the principal human interface. The major purpose of the hyper hospital is to restore humane interactions between patients and various medical caretakers by making a much closer contact between them in the real medical scene than that in current conventional medical practice. In the present study, we discuss the most fundamental part of the development of the virtual reality system for the medical use, that is, system software for the creation of the virtual world which can be defined and modified by users of various levels, not only by the medical caretakers, but particularly by patients.