The Details

We were approached by Echonous, a relatively young medical company breaking ground in the healthcare industry. Having recently launched their Vein transducer we were tasked with creating a VR experience that showcased the ease of use and enormous benefits associated with the product. The exciting new technology uses ultrasound to locate ideal cannula insertion sites, combined with a powerful AI system that measures the vein diameter and suggests the correct needle size. Furthermore, it allows the medical professional to view the needle insertion itself to ensure minimal damage to the vein and surrounding tissue.

Virtual Reality lends itself perfectly to learning, practicing & failing in a safe environment so we created a segmented experience where firstly the device benefits & instructions could be shown before moving onto the interactive section of practicing on a virtual patient.

The Process

The technical challenge associated with this project was in accurately representing an ultrasound scan on a virtual patient whilst moving a virtual transducer along their arm. After several techniques were tested we settled on a video scrubbing technique where we recorded roughly 20 minutes of footage from the real transducer, recording at exactly which points on a real arm the footage referred to. Then began the lengthy process of mapping that footage to points along the virtual patients arm. The result worked incredibly well and fooled many doctors testing the end product!
The experience characters are modelled based on the preferences of the client from a selection of reference photographs. These are modelled and rigged for animation. The voice of the characters are also selected from range of Voice Artist samples.
Moving on from the characters, the environment also had to be created, again using reference images and guidance from the client to create an accurate representation of the patient hospital room. The useable assets interactive props are also realistically modeled such as the transducer unit (including tablet) , Ultrasound gel bottle, Tourniquet and Cannula needles.
Coding and piecing together all the elements of the experience with the voice overs, to provide the most accurate representation of the “real life” procedure. The user has the task of locating the ideal vein location, using the AI system to determine the cannula needle size and then inserting, all under the guidance of the virtual senior nurse.

The Experience

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