ColorVisionVR Visualizes Color Blindness
Published · Updated
by Kristi Hansen Onkka
Virtual reality helps personalize a disease for those who are not afflicted. It allows a first-person experience which empowers medical professionals, caregivers and the general public to better understand and appreciate the patient’s point of view or experience. Thus, virtual reality powers empathy which helps bridge communication gaps and generates new ideas for innovative treatments.
Visualizing Color Blindness
Tiffany Raber, a medical visualization specialist, has created an interactive virtual reality experience that explores the eight different types of color blindness that occur in the human eye.
Once a user puts on their headset, they are immediately immersed into a representative cellular world of red, blue, and green cones. Users can play descriptive animations of a chosen color blindness cause and then experience the effect first-hand by entering a simulated “Color Room”, filled with familiar everyday objects.
As it is very difficult for anybody to imagine what being color blind is like, this direct relationship between learning the science and experiencing color vision manipulation is critical in developing a more empathetic and deeper understanding of these deficiencies. Based on the deliverable’s large range of audience, interactive components including user-controlled movement, object handling, and toggling UI visibility were implemented, enabling users to take control of this dynamic learning experience.
Creating ColorVisionVR
HealthiAR interviewed ColorVisionVR creator, Tiffany Raber, who is a trained medical illustrator. She feels privileged to be positioned at the intersection of art, science, and technology. And she is intrigued by the visual thinking and storytelling process of complex scientific concepts but what motivates her are the endless possibilities to directly impact the medical education field.
During her last semester as a graduate student in Biomedical Visualization at the University of Illinois at Chicago she experienced Virtual Reality for the first time. She says her experience immersed in the headset was obviously unforgettable. But the real excitement came after she took the headset off. From that moment, she directed all of her focus into interactive medical education/simulation VR environments, Unity development, and 3D asset creation.
ColorVision VR Creator, Tiffany Raber
"ColorVision VR, and other MedVR will lead and transform the virtual reality industry. With this technology at their fingertips, medical professionals will be able to improve patient experiences, surgical training, and science education."
ColorVisionVR was recently demonstrated at the Salon at the Association of Medical Illustrator’s 2017 Annual Conference in Austin, Texas.
Medium/Software used:
Oculus Rift + Touch, Unity3D, Pixologic ZBrush, Autodesk 3ds Max, Adobe Creative Suite
Oculus Rift + Touch, Unity3D, Pixologic ZBrush, Autodesk 3ds Max, Adobe Creative Suite
For more information on ColorvisionVR, Tiffany can be contacted via her Linkedin profile or via email at tiffany@trabermedia.com.
About Kristi Hansen Onkka
Kristi is the founder of healthiAR and is passionate about the impact virtual and augmented reality will have on healthcare. Visit her at getkristi.com.
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