The Visible Ear Simulator: A Public PC Application for GPU-Accelerated Haptic 3D Simulation of Ear Surgery Based on the Visible Ear Data

Existing virtual simulators for middle ear surgery are based on 3-dimensional (3D) models from computed tomographic or magnetic resonance imaging data in which image quality is limited by the lack of detail (maximum, ~50 voxels/mm3), natural color, and texture of the source material. Virtual training often requires the purchase of a program, a customized computer, and expensive peripherals dedicated exclusively to this purpose.