MeVisLab-OpenVR prototyping platform for virtual reality medical applications
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 20, 2025
Author Spotlight: Segmentation and VR for Advanced Neurovascular Interventions
Published on: April 5, 2024
Stijn De Buck1,2,3,4,5, Alexander Van De Bruaene6,7,8, Werner Budts6,7
1Imaging & Pathology Department, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, BUS 7003, 3000, Leuven, Belgium. stijn.debuck@uzleuven.be.
Purpose:
Virtual reality (VR) can provide an added value for diagnosis and/or intervention planning. Several VR software implementations have been proposed but they are often application dependent. Previous attempts for a more generic solution incorporating VR in medical prototyping software (MeVisLab) were still lacking functionality precluding easy and flexible development.
Methods:
We propose an alternative solution that uses rendering to a graphical processing unit (GPU) texture to enable rendering arbitrary Open Inventor scenes in a VR context. It facilitates flexible development of user interaction and rendering of more complex scenes involving multiple objects. We tested the platform in planning a transcatheter cardiac stent placement procedure.
Results:
This approach proved to enable development of a particular implementation that facilitates planning of percutaneous treatment of a sinus venosus atrial septal defect. The implementation showed it is intuitive to plan and verify the procedure using VR.
Conclusion:
An alternative implementation for linking OpenVR with MeVisLab is provided that offers more flexible development of VR prototypes which can facilitate further clinical validation of this technology in various medical disciplines.
