Building a virtual environment for endoscopic sinus surgery simulation

Advanced display technologies have made the virtual exploration of relatively complex models feasible in many applications. Unfortunately, only a few human interfaces allow natural interaction with the environment Moreover, in surgical applications, such realistic interaction requires real-time rendering of volumetric data-placing an overwhelming performance burden on the system. We report on our advances towards developing a virtual reality system that provides intuitive interaction with complex volume data by employing real-time realistic volume rendering and convincing force feedback (haptic) sensations. We describe our methods for real-time volume rendering, model deformation, interaction, and the haptic devices, and demonstrate the utilization of this system in the real-world application of Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (ESS) simulation. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.