eXtended Reality (XR) interfaces can be realized through Virtual Reality (VR), where the operator is immersed in a 3D digital world, Augmented Reality (AR), where an operator’s perception of the real world is enhanced through the superimposition of virtual objects and information, and Mixed Reality (MR), that not just overlays but anchors virtual objects to the real world.
In particular, Augmented reality (AR) can act as a useful guidance tool especially in minimally invasive surgery, where it provides an “X-ray vision” of the patient anatomy: by superimposing virtual organ reconstructions on the patient's body, it is able to compensate for the lack of visibility of internal anatomical structures that makes such operations more difficult than those performed in open surgery. In addition, by providing real-time visual and auditory feedback and various other contextually relevant indications, it is able to keep the surgeon's attention alert and thus significantly reduce the possibility of errors.
Furthermore, all three declinations of extended reality can be used to develop applications for pre-operative planning or for training and education of surgeons in the form of serious games.
The development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), along with its subcategories, has led to significant success in various domains, including advanced image processing and pattern detection, signal processing/recognition and its applications. Decisions made in the clinical practice using AI can provide a basis for justifying decisions, tracking and verifying them, further improving algorithms and, more importantly, exploring new clinical facts in real-time.
The aim of this special issue is to attract researchers to submit original papers, critical reviews of the state of art, analysis of case studies and rigorous studies and mature research, and future research trends that contain the combinations of XR/AR with AI in medicine, surgery, and rehabilitation.
This special issue aims to foster the dissemination of high quality research with new methods, models, theories and practice in order to solve the challenging problems which are related to cloud, IoT and data science. Original research articles are solicited which include (but not limited to), the following topics:
- Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed reality in healthcare
- Artificial Intelligence in healthcare
- Serious games in rehabilitations
- Combination of XR and AI for rehabilitation purpose
- Value added real-time applications
- Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence in special education
- Digital Twin
- Bio and neuro-adaptive eXtended Reality