El Rincon del Dr. KakaWate

I have been a strong advocate of Virtual Reality as well as Augmented Reality since 2011 and technology has allowed me to truly experiment with it since late 2014.

As an interventional Cardiologist I looked for ways to implement it in the Cathlab for Medical Education. I did this initially thanks to to the help of JauntVR and Medtronic. You can check the post in Nuviun here – “Interventional Cardiologist uses Virtual Reality in the Cathlab”

Since I wanted to be able to do this on my own I searched for many different options to do so, it seemed that before and for the time being the best way to do it is with 3d Printed Virtual Reality Rigs and modified GoPro cameras. I was able to do this thanks to the help of Virtual Natives (Javier Herreros and Cristian Dominguez) they are VR Masters

So this is step #1 – Creating your RIG. First thing I would recommend is to modify you GoPro Camera and add a larger FOV lense. Such as the picture elucidates below. I started making one from Epoxy Putty then continued with 3D Printing Technology. In addition you will need Entaniya Lenses or Izugar Lenses

If you have purchased the lenses here is a video on how to remove them. This is for the Izugar ones which I use.

And once you have done it and if you have a 3d Rig it should look like the picture above the video. But DO not sweat it. If you do not have a 3D rig I also found that your hands are the cheapest 3D printers Available. And yes an Epoxy Putty Rig works well 😉 Picture…

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Ok so you have your rig, now what? Well you will need a MonoPod that is slim and that will not interfere with the images of you Cameras. I find this one to be a great one Polaroid 65″ VariPod 2-in-1 Telescoping Camera Monopod 

An important point of VR, no matter of how many different cameras you have is that you have to synchronize them to start recording at a same time, not imperative, but it does help in the stitching of the videos and for this you will need a GoPro Remote controller so you can start recording in all the cameras at the same time.

Step #2: You will need to “Stitch” the Videos and then likely edit them with another software. In order to stitch the videos you will need Ideally Autopano Video but Autopano Giga can also help in challenging stitching scenarios.

Here is an Example of what Autopano Video looks like:

I learned to use this software by trial and error. It was a little painful but I had fun doing so. There are some tutorials in the net but this in my opinion was the most challenging step. These days it is easier because there are many presets included that make stitching very easy. If you need help with this step contact me or contact Virtual Natives they will be happy to help.

Once you have your stitched Video then comes the editing portion. Yes this is elective but makes your video look better and its fun 😉 I used Adobe Premiere for this and I learned how to use it with online course at UDEMY

Once you have your videos you will be able to share with the world your experience. Now starting with education will be the most simple step but I will elucidate how this will play in the hospital briefly

1. It will make Hospital stays better, possible shorter, and improve patient satisfaction and outcome. (How you may ask, I will show you later)
2. It will enable the patients to interact with family members like it happens in the app VTIME .  (Yes I have used it. I will not talk about something if I do not understand it and I have not experienced it)
3. It will improve in Cardiac Rehabilitation and Post-Operatory State
4. It will reduce patient anxiety
5. Many more things but this is not the point of this post
6. Convergence of VR with Robotics and you will have a VR Cockpit. I have said this in the past in some of my conferences already…

From my experience sharing them in Youtube is ok but the quality, well how can I say this scientifically… SUCKS  and KOLOR Eyes is by far better. In addition you can zoom in and out.

Here is a very quick example of it being used in the Cathlab. This I just did quickly in literally 5 minutes, improvising the camera position and it turned out to be decent. The quality is i good since I uploaded it to KOLOR.

Below, is the first 360 Immersive VR conference. This will be the way we attend medical meetings in a future. I recorded it myself, processed and edited with the techniques mentioned above. The quality is reduced secondary to youtube platform but at least you get the idea. By the way it is a great talk 😉 It happened in Cardiovascular Research Technologies

With this one you Can use Google Cardboard if you have it!

Last but not least, this following slides will summarize some important key points.

This process will be simplified immensely in 2016. Personally I am truly excited about this Samsung Camera or the Vuze

There you have it! Questions, feel free to send them via twitter @ChristianAssad