At present, about 70 people are working there, namely a staff of 23 researchers and over 40 students. The Virtual Design system developed at Fraunhofer is implemented in several practical working fields such as the automotive and aerospace industries, mechanical engineering, urban planning, architecture and the world of medicine in particular. Undoubtedly tools equally used for medical virtual reality. Alternative to conventional methods of diagnosis, the Fraunhofer team has conceived a highly interactive medical training system for arthroscopy through computer graphics and Virtual Reality techniques. The VR training simulator permits student-surgeons to get familiar with the intuitive handling of the instruments in a real time simulation of an authentic arthroscopy.
Force feedback is of capital interest here and is getting continuously improved.
Ziegler strains the importance of a realistic representation which can only be achieved by means of a well organised training protocol. In this way, the trainee is able to practice surgical techniques before facing a real patient. A second simulator has been developed for nasal endoscopy. At present, the Institute offers training on demand in workshops at hospitals and companies. Next year's spring will reveal the publishing results on preoperative planning and intraoperative support by means of virtual reality.