Virtual Reality Brain

The goal of the group is to develop an application that reveals the 3D brain in a virtual reality environment. The brain is a complex 3D object that we do not have much experience with in our daily lives. Visualization of the 3D brain is difficult with traditional methods that rely on 2D presentation such as computer monitors. Virtual reality permits the viewing of the 3D brain as if one were looking at the brain in 3D. This project has applications for education, where it could help students understand anatomy and physiology of the brain. The project has applications in investigation, where better visualization could provide new insights. Finally, the project has applications in medicine, where 3D visualization may aid in detection of neurological diseases.
This application is currently implemented on an Android mobile device, and uses Google Cardboard Glasses for Virtual Reality viewing. The images for the 3D brain are obtained with a technique called Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which yields 3D images of the whole brain.
Activities in our group are divided as follows. Guadalberto Hernández (Medicine, ULL) provides support from a medical perspective. Rafael Arnay del Arco (Computer Science, ULL) and Yasser Aleman (Madrid) are responsible for computational implementation of the application. Niels Janssen (Psychology, ULL) oversees the project and provides the 3D images.