Interaction design for dental training immersive virtual environments

• Grant number: 18/18656-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2018
• End date: October 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Industrial Design - Product Design
• Principal Investigator: Romero Tori
• Grantee: Pedro Canecchio Rodrigues Ferreirinho
• Host Institution: Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The emergent field of studies in technologies for training professionals during their formation is slowly growing and the use of simulators in technical and baccalaureate courses, especially the ones in health, is not only welcome, but inevitable. On behalf of this situation, the project VIDA Odonto was created, a system that intends to make the process of training surgical practices in the field of dentistry more versatile, accessible and efficient, by using immersive technologies such as virtual reality headsets, movement tracking cameras and haptic tools. For this matter, it is essential to create an interface that meets the demands of the system and provides a smooth and intuitive experience. Therefore, extensive research should be carried out on the state of the art of interfaces in immersive environments in order to get clear notion of the advantages and limitations present in this media, so that the application of this knowledge in the VIDA Odonto system may be possible in colleges around the world, helping to improve the training of students and future professionals. The main point of this research project is, thus, to study and analyses the interfaces already made for analogous problems to come up with solutions that can then be applied in the project of the interfaces of VIDA Odonto, wich will be prototyped and finally tested on the target audience. The results, besides contributing to Vida Odonto interface design project, will generate academic articles that will be able to bring more feedback for improvements on the system. This work is associated with the regular FAPESP project (protocol 2016/26290-3), which has the partnership of the Faculty of Dentistry of Bauru (FOB/USP) and the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of São Paulo (FOUSP).