Speaker: Manuel T. Schrempf (Inst. 193-02 CG)
The purpose of this master thesis is the development of a mobile, anatomical education
application for the general public, which shifts the passive, unthoughtful mobile device
usage to a more active, teaching usage by utilizing macroscopic and regional anatomy.
The new, immersive learning experience with interactive, Three Dimensional (3D), Aug-
mented Reality (AR) anatomy models synchronizes the models in realtime with the user’s
face. Individuals of the general public can digitally dissect their own facial anatomy to
learn geometrical, spatial, and textual anatomy features.
Immanent features of the created learning process are self-directed anatomy learning,
less cognitive load, a motivation-, attention-, concentration increase, longer preserved sat-
isfaction, new anatomical knowledge, and better spatial abilities compared to traditional
learning. The high complexity of the human anatomy restricts the synchronized anatomy
models to the head. Notwithstanding, all human anatomy models can be viewed as Two
Dimensional (2D) or AR 3D renderings, whereby only the head anatomy is synchronized
with the user’s head.
The answered research questions are “How can interactive AR be used in anatomical
education for the general public?” and “How much and what anatomy can be learned in
which time with the developed application compared to state of the art works?”. Head
Pose Estimation (HPE) links AR managed by the framework ARCore with 3D anatomy
models from Body Parts 3D (BP3D) and anatomy information from Foundational
Model of Anatomy (FMA) to educate the general public in anatomy. Recommended
requirements from professional literature are fulfilled by the developed mobile application
named ARnatomy, which is a jointed, anatomical, interactive learning experience. The
development result has been evaluated in an informal study with eight participants, which
showed that mobile AR can be used for the anatomical education of the general public.
Seven of eight participants gained anatomical knowledge in a geometrical, spatial, and
textual form.