RISE May-June 2009 - University of Salford

RISE! Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
ALAS POOR YORICK!
Two University of Salford Academics, Denis McGrath (Faculty
of Health and Social Care) and Dr. Rob Aspin (Faculty of
Science Engineering and Environment) have jointly
developed a “mixed reality” anatomical simulator prototype
called Yorick after receiving a grant from the University of
Salford Enterprise fund, supported by Pawel Zolnierczyk
from Enterprise and Development and Stephen Bowden
Virtual Reality consultant from SEE.
This cross faculty initiative tracks an object in real-time (anatomical or
otherwise) and allows for simultaneous physical, virtual and online webbased
interaction with the object for the purposes of teaching and
learning.
RESEARCH REPOSITORY
INFORMATION AVAILABLE
TO ALL
Information & Learning Services (ILS) have been
developing the University of Salford Institutional Repository
(USIR) which is an online database created to showcase
research output from the University.
USIR is an open access repository which allows details of the research
and a full copy of the text to be deposited so that it is freely available to
anyone, anywhere, at any time. Research can be read, downloaded and
copied for non-commercial private study or research purposes.
With researchers regularly submitting their work to USIR, this
technology will play a significant role in achieving success within the
forthcoming Research Excellence Framework (REF) which will assess
institutions’ research standing based on various metrics including both
quantity and quality of research publications.
USIR can be found at http://usir.salford.ac.uk/ If you would like some
further advice on copyright or any other USIR-related query then please
do not hesitate to contact the USIR team at: usir@salford.ac.uk
Yorick’s basic premise is that any one can pick up an unfamiliar
anatomical object, enter the tracking environment, have the relevant
data displayed to them on screen and begin the process of interaction,
exploration and “self directed learning”. The system has successfully
demonstrated the capability of ‘virtualising’ physically rendered MRI
scans directly from DICOM slice data, e.g. for , MRI slice data from
a patient with a badly shattered shoulder complex was then fabricated
into a physical representation using a rapid prototyping tool then the
physical representation was tagged for use in the Yorick system.
Denis and Rob are particularly interested in the use of the simulator for
the development of teaching and learning for pre-registration Nurses,
Undergraduate Occupational Therapists, Radiographers and Midwives.
The virtual information in the prototype can be populated with relevant
learning, anatomical or interaction data depending on the client group.
Future investigations include the possibility of using the prototype for
telemedicine and higher level medical intervention analysis.
For more information on Denis and Rob’s work please contact them
at: d.m.mcgrath@salford.ac.uk or r.aspin@salford.ac.uk
You can view more about the Yorick Project on Faculty TV at
http://www.fsee.salford.ac.uk/tv/sss4yorick.php or on youtube
at www.youtube.com/watchv=O8yxMPcS3Xk
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