Background
Ultrasound (US) images are currently displayed on monitors, and their understanding needs good orientation skills. Direct overlay of US images onto the according anatomy is possible with augmented reality (AR) technologies. Our purpose was to explore the performance of US-guided needle placement with and without AR in situ US viewing.
Methods
Three untrained operators and two experienced radiologists performed 200 US-guided punctures: 100 with and 100 without AR in situ US. The punctures were performed in two different phantoms, a leg phantom with soft tissue lesions and a vessel phantom. Time to puncture and number of needle passes were recorded for each puncture. Data are reported as median [range] according to their non-normal distribution.
Results
AR in situ US resulted in reduced time (median [range], 13 s [3–101] versus 14 s [3–220]) and number of needle passes (median [range], 1 [1–4] versus 1 [1–8]) compared to the conventional technique. The initial gap in performance of untrained versus experienced operators with the conventional US (time, 21.5 s [3–220] versus 10.5 s [3–94] and needle passes 1 [1–8] versus 1 [1, 2]) was reduced to 12.5 s [3–101] versus 13 s [3–100] and 1 [1–4] versus 1 [1–4] when using AR in situ US, respectively.
Conclusion
AR in situ US could be a potential breakthrough in US applications by simplifying operator’s spatial orientation and reducing experience-based differences in performance of US-guided interventions. Further studies are needed to confirm these preliminary phantom results.
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The attractive idea of using game development for teaching programming can only meet student expectations and modern software engineering requirements if it uses advanced multimedia technology, at the level of the best commercial solutions. In implementing novel pedagogical techniques, we have developed a powerful multimedia library, with major contributions from students, and used it to offer games as course projects. More than 150 games have been developed, many of very high quality, and publicly available for everyone's enjoyment. This experience combines advanced software development with student participation, strong O-O software engineering principles, and the excitement of one of the coolest areas of technology.
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