A virtual reality simulator for teaching and evaluating dental procedures.
OBJECTIVE
We present a dental training system with a haptic interface that allows dental students or experts to practice dental procedures in a virtual environment. The simulator is able to monitor and classify the performance of an operator into novice or expert categories. The intelligent training module allows a student to simultaneously and proactively follow the correct dental procedures demonstrated by an intelligent tutor.


METHODS
The virtual reality (VR) simulator simulates the tooth preparation procedure both graphically and haptically, using a video display and haptic device. We evaluated the performance of users using hidden Markov models (HMMs) incorporating various data collected by the simulator. We implemented an intelligent training module which is able to record and replay the procedure that was performed by an expert and allows students to follow the correct steps and apply force proactively by themselves while reproducing the procedure.


RESULTS
We find that the level of graphics and haptics fidelity is acceptable as evaluated by dentists. The accuracy of the objective performance assessment using HMMs is encouraging with 100 percent accuracy.


CONCLUSIONS
The simulator can simulate realistic tooth surface exploration and cutting. The accuracy of automatic performance assessment system using HMMs is also acceptable on relatively small data sets. The intelligent training allows skill transfer in a proactive manner which is an advantage over the passive method in a traditional training. We will soon conduct experiments with more participants and implement a variety of training strategies.
Rhienmora
P
P
Computer Science and Information Management, School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, Klongluang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. phattanapon@gmail.com
Haddawy
P
P
Khanal
P
P
Suebnukarn
S
S
Dailey
M N
MN
D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003813:Dentistry / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008390:Markov Chains; D013335:Students, Dental; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D013785:Thailand; D014584:User-Computer Interface