Endoscopie neurosurgery simulation: Implementation on the evolution engine

The design and evaluation of Neurosurgical simulators has heretofore emphasized the training of `surgical technical skills´. Such commercial platforms generally exercise tool use and other low level sensori-motor tasks such as targeting and navigation for training surgical residents. We report on the development of a set of modules implemented within Digital Extreme´s Evolution Engine, making use of game assets that are derived from pre-operative clinical scans. The simulator exercises trainees spatial reasoning skills in targeting based on ortho-planar and endoscopie views. The technical exposition presented here covers the extension of the game engine to support in-scene endoscopie cameras, and in-scene display monitors that are situated in view of the avatar, and by extension, visible to the surgical trainee while engaged in the surgical scenario.