| Experiences in Using Immersive Virtual Characters to Educate Medical Communication Skills (2005) | |||||||||||||||||||
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| University of Florida This paper presents a system which allows medical students to experience the interaction between a patient and a medical doctor using natural methods of interaction with a high level of immersion. We also present our experiences with a pilot group of medical and physician assistant students at various levels of training. They interacted with projector-based life-sized virtual characters using gestures and speech. We believe that natural interaction and a high level of immersion facilitates the education of communication skills. We present the system details as well as the participants ’ performance and opinions. The study confirmed that the level of immersion contributed significantly to the experience, and participants reported that the system is a powerful tool for teaching and training. Applying the system to formal communication skills evaluation and further scenario development will be the focus of future research and refinement. | |||||||||||||||||||
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