Step Into a Surgeon's Shoes With the Oculus Rift

The Oculus Rift has largely been seen as a gaming accessory, and with good reason - the first Kickstarter pitch that got the ball rolling was focused on gaming, and most of the big name backers who made it a success were also heads of game studios. The CTO at Oculus is John Carmack, one of the greatest legends in the game industry.

But others have also talked about the role the Rift can play in a number of diverse settings, including education, tourism, and even non-interactive entertainment. And now, it is finding use in medicine as well, as noted in a blog post by virtual reality researcher Remi Rousseau.

On June 30, in an experiment for the Moveo Foundation, Dr. Thomas Gregory performed the first surgery filmed specifically for the Oculus Rift at the European Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris. The purpose of the footage is to create a 3D video from the point of view of the surgeon that medical students can watch themselves - to learn exactly what the surgeon is doing.

The video was created using two GoPro cameras, to capture HD video from the point of view of the surgeon operating - right now, students do get to see recorded footage of surgeries, but with the Rift, the experience should put them literally in the shoes of the operating surgeon.

Not only is this a powerful way to teach students, but it would also enable surgeons to observe their own work, zoom in or pause on the things they were seeing, rewind their decisions, and thereby learn from their own work.

You can see the Moveo Foundation's video below, but be warned it includes scenes from the captured footage of the surgery, and might be upsetting for some people to watch.

Over time, as issues of latency and accuracy in movement tracking are reduced, it is possible to see learning modules that are created entirely in VR, allowing medical students to carry out complex procedures on virtual patients, just like they would on real ones.

If you have a Rift and want to experience the 3D footage of the hip replacement surgery, you can click here to download the video.