Cricothyroidotomy (CCT) is a critical, life-saving procedure requiring the identification of key neck landmarks through palpation. Interactive virtual simulation offers a promising, cost-effective approach to CCT training with high visual realism. However, developing the palpation skills necessary for CCT requires a haptic interface with tactile sensitivity comparable to human fingers. Such interfaces are often represented by plastic partial mannequins, which require further adaptation to integrate into virtual environments. This study introduces an instrumented physical palpation interface for CCT, integrated into a virtual surgical simulator, and tested on ten surgeons who practiced the procedure over a training period. Data on haptic interactions collected during the training was analyzed to evaluate participants' palpation skills and explore their force modulation strategies about landmark identification scores. Our findings suggest that trainees become more precise in their exploration over time, apply greater normal forces around target areas. Initial landmark identification performance influences adjustments in the overall applied pressure.

This paper presents a novel 3D system for human motion analysis - Motion Data Visualization and Annotation (MoViAn). Designed to provide a comprehensive visual representation of 3D human motion data, MoViAn incorporates detailed visualization of gaze direction, hand movements, and object interactions, alongside an interactive interface for efficient data annotation. A user study involving eight participants indicates that MoViAn enables users to thoroughly explore and annotate human motion data, with System Usability Scale (SUS) results demonstrating a satisfactory usability level. The contribution of this paper lies in the development of an interactive and usable data analytics tool aimed at deepening the understanding of human behaviors and intentions in various creative, cognitive, and physical activities that ultimately can facilitate the design and creation of innovative tools that enhance human life in multiple domains.

Virtual Reality (VR) may improve mental health through immersive self-expression and relaxing environments. However, co-design for these outcomes is challenging due to participants' limited experience with VR and unfamiliarity with self-expression and relaxation techniques. In this paper, we proposed VRelax, a virtual environment that will be designed to support stress relief through self-expression. We are using OpenBrush as a technology proof to provide participants with a self-expression VR experience before co-design sessions. Smartwatches and inertial sensors are used to collect heart rate and accelerometer data to evaluate participants' stress levels during VR experience. We hypothesize self-expressive VR experience will foster participants’ creativity in designing relaxation environments, and the multimodal data collected could identify which parts of the VR experience are more relaxing or stressful. Our findings will have implications to improve the co-design sessions by using VR as a technology proof and improve the design of VR experiences for relaxation.

This paper presents a novel approach to co-designing an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience where users can participate in a guessability process for a full gesture-based user interface for 3D content interactions using hand controllers. The proposed VR system includes animated visual prompts to allow users to create their own gestures for 13 different object interactions. A pilot study with two participants demonstrated that the visual prompts helped users understand expected interactions and enhanced their creativity in gesture design while maintaining an enjoyable user experience. Hand motion data and user feedback were collected and will be analyzed to provide quantitative insights into gesture efficiency and economy. This paper contributes to developing an intuitive and interactive gesture-based interface for VR and sets the foundation for future studies with more participants to gather additional gesture design ideas.

Abstract Colorectal cancer is a life‐threatening disease. It is the second leading cause of cancer‐related deaths in the United States. Stapled anastomosis is a rapid treatment for colorectal cancer and other intestinal diseases and has become an integral part of routine surgical practice. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no existing work simulating intestinal anastomosis that often involves sophisticated soft tissue manipulations such as cutting and stitching. In this paper, for the first time, we propose a novel split and join approach to simulate a side‐to‐side stapled intestinal anastomosis in virtual reality. We mimic the intestine model using a new hybrid representation—a grid‐linked particles model for physics simulation and a surface mesh for rendering. The proposed split and join operations handle the updates of both the grid‐linked particles model and the surface mesh during the anastomosis procedure. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach in simulating intestine models and the side‐to‐side anastomosis operation.