Kenneth Bogert

Development and Use of an Interactive Computerized Dog Model to Evaluate Cranial Nerve Knowledge in Veterinary Students

In veterinary medicine, the cognitive skills necessary to interpret neurological disorders from text-based case descriptions may not translate into the diagnostic capabilities required for clinical neurological patients. As live animals exhibiting certain specific neurological disorders are infrequent during a students exposure to clinics, students may graduate without the experience necessary to make an accurate diagnosis in the field. To address this, we have developed a computerized simulated dog head that can exhibit cranial nerve dysfunctions and respond to specific testing procedures in a clinically accurate manner. To evaluate whether this type of model could add value to traditional student assessments, we created a multiple-choice quiz system with three types of questions: standard text-based cases, videos of an expert performing an examination of the simulated dog, and an interactive version requiring the student to perform an appropriate examination of the simulated dog to uncover the lesion localization. In an experiment conducted with 97 freshman veterinary students who had recently been taught cranial nerve anatomy and function, we found that examination performance decreased with the need for interactivity compared to memorization of fact, while satisfaction increased. Students were less likely to identify the correct disorder when they had to conduct the examination of the virtual dog themselves, revealing an inadequacy in traditional neuroanatomical teaching. However, students overwhelmingly supported the use of interactive question for assessment. Interestingly, performance on text-based questions did not correlate significantly with interactive or video questions. The results have implications for veterinary teaching and assessment within the classroom and in clinical environments.

Immersive virtual reality on-the-go

We propose to demonstrate a ubiquitous immersive virtual reality system that is highly scalable and accessible to a larger audience. Latest trends in mobile communications as well as the entertainment industry seem to validate that, accessibility and scalability play an important role in democratizing technology. We present a practical design of such a system that offers the core affordances of immersive virtual reality in a portable and untethered configuration. In addition, we have developed an extensive immersive virtual experience that involves engaging users visually and aurally. This is an effort towards integrating VR into the space and time of user workflows.

Poster: Evolution and usability of ubiquitous immersive 3D interfaces

Immersive virtual reality applications have historically been associated with cumbersome technical components that require substantial infrastructure and support. Recent developments have pointed towards a far more accessible and exponentially less expensive generation of immersive virtual reality systems through creative repurposing of the products of the entertainment and mobile communications industry. We present a practical design of such a system; which provides the core interaction affordances of immersive virtual reality, but in a portable, lightweight, untethered configuration. In addition, an immersive virtual experience was developed for the system as an experimental test-bed. User feedback and performance data obtained from a pilot study with this experience is reported that provides insight into the acceptability of the system and experience design under ad-hoc deployment situations.