Bi-Directional Communication of Simulation Information

• US 20090202972A1
• Filed: 02/12/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Immersion Corporation
• Original Assignee: Immersion Corporation
• Inventors: Falk, Robert, Adhami, Louai, Ullrich, Christopher J.
• Application Number:
  US12/029,620
• Publication Number:
  US 20090202972A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/362
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 23/28 for medicine
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

Systems, methods, and associated software for providing a virtual reality experience for a user, particularly a virtual training experience, are described herein. A server associated with a virtual training system according to one embodiment, among others, comprises memory and a network interface. The memory is configured to store virtual training software and a simulation variations database. The virtual training software comprises training simulation logic adapted to provide a virtual training experience. The simulation variations database comprises data associated with preset variations to the virtual training experience. The network interface is configured to communicate with a remote client device within a network and is further configured to receive a first set of information from the client device associated with the virtual training software. Also, the network interface is further configured to transmit a second set of information to the client device associated with the virtual training software.

Claims

1. A server comprising:

memory configured to store virtual training software and a simulation variations database, the virtual training software comprising training simulation logic adapted to provide a virtual training experience, the simulation variations database comprising data associated with preset variations to the virtual training experience; and

a network interface configured to communicate with a remote client device within a network;

wherein the network interface is further configured to receive, from the client device, a first set of information configured to modify at least one of the virtual training software and the simulation variations database; and

wherein the network interface is further configured to transmit, to the client device, a second set of information associated with a modification of at least one of the virtual training software and simulation variations database.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the virtual training software comprises an authentication module adapted to limit access to the virtual training software only to authorized clients on one or more client devices.

3. The server of claim 2, further comprising a client database stored in memory, the client database including a list of the authorized clients.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the virtual training software further comprises logic adapted to create additional simulation variations.

5. The server of claim 4, wherein the logic adapted to create additional simulation variations creates variations in response to the first set of information.

6. The server of claim 4, wherein the network interface is further configured to automatically download the additional simulation variations to the client device.

7. The server of claim 1, wherein the simulation variations comprise variations of a virtual subject receiving actions of a virtual tool.

8. The server of claim 7, wherein:

the virtual training software comprises logic adapted to provide a virtual surgery experience;

the virtual subject is a virtual patient; and

the virtual tool is a virtual surgical tool.

9. The server of claim 1, wherein the network interface is configured to communicate with a plurality of client devices within the network.

10. The server of claim 1, wherein the network interface is further configured to download patch information associated with the virtual training software.

11. The server of claim 1, wherein the virtual training software comprises logic adapted to track scores related to performance characteristics of a client using the client device to experience the virtual training.

12. The server of claim 11, wherein the memory further comprises a records database for storing the scores.

13. Virtual training software embodied on a computer-readable medium and executable by a processor, the virtual training software comprising:

a training simulation module comprising training logic to perform a virtual reality training exercise, wherein portions of the training logic can be downloaded to a plurality of remote client devices;

authentication logic adapted to determine whether a specific client device of the plurality of remote client devices is authorized to access the training simulation module; and

simulation creating module comprising logic to create additional simulation variations in response to input from the specific remote client device when it is determined that the specific client device is authorized to access the training simulation module.

14. The virtual training software of claim 13, wherein the simulation creating module further comprises logic to store the created simulation variations in a database.

15. The virtual training software of claim 13, wherein the authentication module is configured to access of a list of authorized client devices from a database.

16. The virtual training software of claim 13, further comprising a score tracking module having logic to receive scores from client devices, wherein the scores are related to performance success of users of the training logic.

17. A client device in communication with a virtual training network, the client device comprising:

a network interface configured to communicate with a training simulation server within the virtual training network;

memory configured to store a virtual reality training program adapted to receive input control signals from a user and to display virtual reality images;

wherein the network interface is further configured to transmit, to the training simulation server, information related to a modification of the virtual reality training program.

18. The client device of claim 17, wherein the transmitted information comprises variations of real world scenarios associated with the virtual reality training program.

19. The client device of claim 17, wherein the transmitted information comprises a different approach for performing medical procedures associated with the virtual reality training program.

20. The client device of claim 17, wherein the transmitted information comprises a score based on performance of a user executing the virtual reality training program.

21. A method comprising:

receiving information associated with virtual reality training software from a client device;

modifying the virtual reality training software based on the information received from the client device; and

transmitting at least a portion of the modified virtual reality training software to the client device.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

transmitting at least the portion of the modified virtual reality training software to a plurality of client devices.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein modifying the virtual reality training software further comprises:

forwarding the received information to one or more human operators;

enabling the one or more human operators to execute software adapted to identify organs of a real world surgical patient;

creating a model of a virtual patient from the identified organs; and

adding the created model to a database including variations of virtual patients associated with the virtual reality training software.