An educational AR system for visualizing radiation interactions with human tissue

The purpose of this study was to develop an educational system in order to visualize radiation interactions in the learner's forearm through the use of Augmented Reality (AR) technology. The interactions are calculated by PHITS simulation code and the particle trajectories or the energy depositions are overlaid on live images captured by a USB camera. The system used ARToolKit library to overlay the box and bone 3D CG objects on the learner's forearm. The objects are generated by using Metasequoia4. The program has four modes of operation, X-ray Tomography, Heavy Ion Therapy, PET Imaging, and BNCT. By selecting one, the learner can learn about interactions of photons, carbon ions, positrons, and neutrons, respectively. The bone objects are overlaid only in the X-ray Tomography mode. As a result, the learner can see a simulation of the different interactions caused by each of the four kinds of radiation inside the learner's own forearm as 640 pixel × 480 pixel composited images on a PC screen at just over 5 fps.