Emergency medicine training with gesture driven interactive 3D simulations

In this paper we present the prototype system that will be used in the RIMSI project for the simulation and training of medical and para-medical personnel in emergency medicine. The use of immersive simulations in medical training is extremely useful to confront emergency operators with scenarios that range from usual (e.g. unconscious person on the ground) to extreme (car accident with several injured people) without posing the simulation participants in any harm. It is critical to exploit 3D virtual worlds in order to provide as much contextual information as possible to the operators. In fact each emergency procedure needs to be adapted depending on the environmental threats and the presence of multiple injured people in need of assistance or bystanders. The presented prototype will simulate virtual first aid scenarios with interactive 3D graphics. Users will interact with a gesture based interface based on Kinect™. The interface will improve the immersive capability of the system and provide a natural interface for navigation and interaction with the virtual environment.