Building a Virtual Trainer for an Immersive Haptic Virtual Reality Environment

Abstract

This chapter describes the virtual trainer we developed for CSIRO’s temporal bone dissection simulator. This simulation software runs on an immersive haptic virtual reality environment. The prototype system uses a task model based on a finite state machine to describe the procedure and interactive landmarks to trace the user’s action in relation to vital structures. This gives the user situation related feedback based on user actions. The future virtual trainer would need to be based on research on intelligent tutoring systems to tailor feedback for the students and maximize their knowledge and skill acquisition. Various features for such a system are described.