THI
The Two-Handed Interface
The Two-Handed Interface (THI) lets users do things that are impossible with the mouse, and THI powers every application produced by Digital ArtForms. Driven by a pair of hand-held tracked controllers called SpaceGrips, THI allows users to reach into space to control their viewpoint and to manipulate tools and data. THI can be thought of as 3D multi-touch, but instead of two 2D points on the surface of a flat display, THI gives the user two 6 Degree of Freedom (3 positional and 3 rotational) points in space. Combining these two 6 Degree of Freedom Points together in novel ways enables an intuitive method of interacting with applications, and as a result THI has been shown to perform fundamental 3D tasks at 4-5x the speed of the mouse for novice users (47 minutes of training). This benefit approaches 9x in expert users.
THI has been applied to many applications including Medicine, Design, and Command & Control (Figure 1).
- Figure 1. Three example THI applications: medical, design, and command and control.
iMedic3D
Full 3D DICOM Interactive Visualization
iMedic3D puts users inside their DICOM datasets. Driven by THI, no other system is as general and yet so powerful for exploring CT scans and other modalities. Place yourself anywhere, facing in any direction, and at any scale in your data with just one or two quick intuitive gestures.
The Clipbox
iMedic3D’s Clipbox is designed to let users declutter complex anatomy to see what’s most important. By setting rendering styles independently for regions that fall inside and outside the Clipbox, you can view areas of interest in detail while keeping the visual context of the surrounding volume. To find key features in dense data, you set the Clipbox’s exterior to near partial transparency for context with minimal occlusion, and set it’s interior to more opaque to see volumes of interest. You can then sweep the box through your data to explore internal anatomy (Figure 2).
- Figure 2. A user sweeps a rendering style through a dataset to view areas of interest within a more transparent context.
Reshaping the Clipbox is straightforward. You simply grab and hold with one hand and then stretch it to the correct size with the other hand (Figure 3).
- Figure 3. A user reshapes the Clipbox.
You can set the inside of the Clipbox to be fully transparent. This enables cutting of channels or cavities to put your viewpoint into dense or cluttered regions. This enables you to “walk” into and through your data without being blinded by data that is too close to your viewpoint (Figure 4). You can also move the Clipbox while you are inside your data, enabling you to interactively manipulate and view planes of data. Alternatively you can attach the Clipbox to your viewpoint so that nearby data will not occlude data at a distance.
- Figure 4. Visualizing anatomy from within is done using iMedic3D’s Clipbox and navigation capabilities.
Posture and Approach for Clipbox Placement
THI plays an integral part in defining an ideal Clipbox, what we call Posture and Approach. THI’s easy viewpoint scaling affords the user with a comfortable reach for surrounding a given feature with a Clipbox. If the feature of interest is small, you grow the world so that you can easily surround it (Figure 5).
- Figure 5. A user resizes his position, orientation, and size in order to comfortably place the Clipbox around a volume of interest.
If the feature of interest is large, you shrink the world for easy reach (Figure 6). In all cases, hand gestures are held in the same comfortable physical location although they are in very different locations in virtual space. There is no fatigue because the hands do not need to be held up and out in front of your body.
- Figure 6. A user sets his viewpoint so the entire dataset is within reach.
Availability
iMedic3D is available today without FDA clearance. Contact us at info@dartforms.com for a demo.
- iMedic3D Product Brochure (click to download).
iMedicPACS
3D Tracked Reads with Speed and Comfort
iMedicPACS is Digital ArtForms 3D tracked interface for cross-sectional image examination of 3D datasets. iMedicPACS supports the Radiologist’s familiar workflow while improving on efficiency, accuracy, and ergonomics. While iMedicPACS is a departure from traditional mouse and keyboard interaction in many respects, it requires little training because it is so similar to the standard PACS workflow.
Comfort and Health for the Physician
iMedicPACS is a new and healthier alternative to the mouse and keyboard interface that has been driving the PACS since the early1990′s. Rather than hunching over the mouse and keyboard, the physician comfortably leans back with a natural and comfortable posture without strain. Although anecdotal, iMedicPACS controllers do not seem to cause repetitive stress the way the mouse does. We believe this is because the motions of the user’s arms in iMedicPACS are not constrained to a 2D plane and by their nature are non-repetitive.
Digital ArtForms designed iMedicPACS with radiologists, so it has the features clinicians expect for rapid diagnosis. Requirements defined by today’s leading radiologists have been translated into the next generation interface by Digital ArtForms’ team, with over 50 years of immersive interaction experience. Scrolling, pan/zooming, and obliquing are quick and natural (Figure 7).
- Figure 7. Scrolling through CT data with iMedicPACS.
Availability
iMedicPACS will be available in Summer 2012. Contact us at info@dartforms.com to be one of the first on our list to try this revolutionary product.
unPack3D
Two-Handed Baggage Inspection
As airport security screening moves to faster full 3D CT, improved examination techniques are needed to keep up. unPack3D is a faster and more accurate approach to baggage screening. It allows users to intuitively reach into space and manipulate 3D objects to ‘electronically unpack’ a bag and examine its contents (Figure 8).
THI drives unPack3D and the Clipbox makes decluttering fast and easy. unPack3D also characterizes material properties to enhance its ability to visualize associated IED components and concealment methods in 3D.
- Figure 8. A user virtually examines a suspicious item in a backpack. Note the ball bearing is visible within the aerosol can.
Availability
UnPack3D will soon be integrated into airport security.