VR Studio

Virtual Reality in Academic Health Sciences Library: A Primer

This primer, an investigation of virtual reality (VR) in academic health sciences libraries, offers an extraordinary opportunity to meet and talk with University of Washington (UW) researchers, residents, and clinicians about the future role of research libraries.

IMLS Grant

The University of Washington Health Sciences Library received funding from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)'s National Leadership Grant for Libraries, to design and build a Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) program and studio for surgical care teams to simulate cardiac surgery in a library environment. In collaboration with the University of Washington Center for Cardiovascular Innovation (CCVI) and School of Medicine, Bioinformatics and Medical Education, HSL will design and create a VR service in the Translational Research and Innovation Lab (TRAIL) utilizing a data wall, stereoscopic headsets, and a laptop. Pyrus Medical’s Bosc, the VR and AR software, allows participants to visualize complete patient anatomy in 3D, simulating depth, movement, and structure of the human body more realistically than on a standard computer screen.

The equipment purchased consists of one MSI GT73VR Titan Pro laptop with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. We will be using the HTC Vive VR system, the Oculus Rift VR system with the Leap Motion camera. We will be able to project what the clinician is demonstrating onto 2x3 video wall with 55-inch displays. The six screens can be set up in various display configurations, allowing researchers to show supplementary data and images next to the VR presentation, when desired.