New Products
Hospital VR System
Proposal for solution that uses VR which is applicable in a hospital and medical practice

Price:quoted separately Release: November, 2011 Simulation

About Hospital VR System
Although we are seeing IT system in hospitals and medical practice more often these days, this IT system is mainly a medical system or mainly a system focused on the improving work efficiency in a hospital. Therefore, there is room for improvement in VR application in disaster prevention, energy saving / environmental measures, and communication with patients and  local residents.

Forum8 offers the solution to these issues by using 3D/VR technology based on know-how of civil engineering, architecture, and analysis we have cultivated. (Figure 1) From now on, we will offer the solution that uses VR which can be used by various people involved in a hospital and medical practice. (Table 1)¡

Figure 1 Hospital VR solution

Introduction of VR
Hospital staff Patients/ local residents
Improvement in medical practice
  • Verification of furniture placement in a hospital
  • Driving simulation of a wheel chair and reheating cart
  • Verification of passage width etc.
  • Layout verification of hospital room and doctor's room
  • Scenery confirmation from hospital room's window
  • Simulation of rehabilitation etc.
Communication with local community
  • Image confirmation of hospital location
  • Image confirmation of inside the building
  • Verification by 3D model
  • Communication using cloud computing and VR technology
Building designer Hospital manager
Comprehension of design intent and demand, response to energy saving/ environment (From the viewpoint of building designer)prototyping
  • Communication of design intent
  • Extraction of design intent and earlier extraction of demand of staff in hospital
  • Improvement of estimate accuracy of consumption energy 
  • Seismic diagnosis
Secure of a specific indication, response to risk management
  • Confirmation of building concept such as outside/ inside the hospital etc.
  • Prevision for earthquake disaster
  • Evacuation analysis
  • Avoidance of place of road damage for emergency vehicles 
Table 1 Example of solution using VR
Improvement in medical practice (From the viewpoint of hospital staff)
Layout inside the hospital is very important for the improvement of work efficiency of hospital staff in hospital practice. By using simulation of VR, the specific problem the current layout has can be expressed, furthermore the validity can be also expressed for an improvement idea. (Figure 2)¡
Figure 2 Image inside of the hospital

Furthremore, when the patients who have physical difficulties such as serious disease or in the process of treatment receive rehabilitation, they tend to feel anxiety about the rapid exercise. By conducting the rehabilitation using a simulator which uses VR for the exercise, walking and car driving beforehand, it will be very helpful for the verification of rehab policy and the condition understanding of patients.


Verification of furniture placement in a hospital

The space image inside a hospital facility of service room etc. can be verified at the structural stage and the time of design. (Figure 3)¡

Figure 3 Verification of furniture placement in a hospital

Driving simulation of a wheel chair and reheating cart

Transport simulation such as a wheel chair, reheating cart inside the hospital and a portable medical device etc. is possible. The angle and width of slope can be verified. (Figure4)¡

Figure 4 Wheel chair

Verification of passageway width etc.

Whether the enough passage width is set can be verified when walking along the passage in a condition setting the furniture etc. inside a hospital and transporting  the portable beds and devices for medical. (Figure5)¡
Figure 5 Verification of passageway width etc.

Layout verification of hospital room and doctor's room

Practically setting beds etc. in a space of a hospital room and a doctor's room, it can verify the layout which considers the work efficiency. The scenery from the hospital room's window can be also confirmed. (Figure6)¡
Figure 6 Scenery from a hospital room

Drive simulator for rehabilitation of stroke patients

Road monitoring system is the system to support the evaluation of driver of rehabilitant and to fulfill the function as a virtual drive simulator. By evaluating the condition of patients, it can test the physical condition of patients and their problem resolution abilities. (Figure7)¡

Figure7 Rehabilitation of stroke patients

Blood vessel simulation in the field of education and research
In various simulations using  UC-win/Road, there is a blood vessel simulation as an example of utilization for education and research of medical. By recreating inside the vessel in VR space, the condition each red blood cell flows inside the blood vessel can be confirmed. (Figure8)¡
Figure8 Blood vessel simulation

Wheel chair security simulator

According to the arrival of a graying society, about 20 thousand new people are becoming  wheel chair users in a month. Some of them who have just started to use wheel chairs have the accidents such as bone fracture by using them mistakenly.(Figure9, 10)
Forum8 is co-developing and researching about the wheel chair security simulator as a co-research with Kansai University, system science and engineering departments. We are suggesting to use the VR space of UC-win/Road as a display screen of wheel chair simulator.

Figure9 Wheel chair simulator hardware combination framework, flow Figure10 Wheel example sample by MD3 character


Drink drive simulator 
By using computer simulator and VR and simulating the driving condition after drinking alcohol, the driving in a condition which central nerve and equilibrium system of human are cluttered up can be experienced. The risk of drinking driving can be warmed with this simulation.

With the VR space using a deflection filter (Mobile customize design is verified.), the perfect platform which integrated the software environment and hardware is offered through the interactive experience such as a dopey vision expression, delay of action, vibration of steering handle and vibration of seats.

By setting various scenarios beforehand, how the drunk driver react to the pedestrian's running and for the other running vehicles can be simulated. (Figure11)¡

Figure11 Drink drive simulator

Comprehension of design intent and demand, response to energy saving/ environment (From the viewpoint of building designer)
Conventional 2D architecture tool couldn't express the image of inside and outside a hospital, and transmission of the design intent and an extraction of demand of staff in a hospital were difficult. Because of that, the enough verification at the concept stage was not conducted, the problem was clarified at the stage of design and construction, and there was the case that it was difficult to conduct the provision.

Regarding this, by using VR technology and simulation, the clear presentation about design intent and the validity from at the concept stage can be conducted. By understanding of hospital staff, the potential needs of staff will be easy to be extracted, and enough verification from the earlier stage will be possible. This will lead to the decision-making and prevention of changing of mind, and be helpful for satisfaction improvement of concerned people.

Also the simulation of the estimate of material cost and consumption energy/CO2 exhaust will be possible, and the architectural design considering consumption energy and environmental pollution will be also possible.


Transmission of design intent and earlier extraction of demand of staff in hospital

By using VR as prototyping , the design intent of designers can be transmitted enough. Also, feed back of the staff's consensus is possible.
The verification of structure and color of outside and inside a hospital and door's size and shape will be easier to understand from the concept stage. It can make it easier to transmit the designer's design intent and to extract the opinion of staff of hospital.

Also, various verifications such as the method of information displaying etc, of evacuation route and the image of inside a hospital from many points of view, such as the patients using wheel chairs, children and so on. will be possible. (Figure 12)¡
Figure 12 From the viewpoint of building designer

Communication with local community (From the viewpoint of patients and local residents)
The surrounding environment and the inside image of a hospital leads to brand image for local residents. Recreating the appearance of inside a hospital and surrounding environment with VR technology, the presentation for patients and local residents can be conducted.

Image confirmation inside a hospital

It makes the image of utilities of a new hospital, layout etc. easier, and easy to understand the atmosphere at the time of using it practically. By using 3D model, the appearance inside and outside the hospital can be shown precisely to the patients and local residents. (Figure 13)¡

Figure 13 Image confirmation inside a hospital

Visualization by 3D model

It corresponds to 3D model data of 3DS form output from our product, UC-win/Road, UC-win/FRAME(3D), UC-1 series, Allplan etc., and offers the service creating the actual "model" by 3D printer. (Figure 14)¡

Figure 14 3D model

Communication using cloud computing and VR technology

 VR-Cloud(TM) is a consensus formation solution using 3D/VR on cloud server. If you are in the environment where you can connect to internet, you can operate the VR space with web browser without considering the place or machine performance. It can be used as a support tool for an advertisement and consensus formation in a whole project such as the city planning and town development by VR.

"Consensus Formation Support Virtual 3D space use by cloud computing" for "industry technology research/development expenses for commission ( Reliable for next generation/ Energy-saving IT basis technology development work )(2010)" of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry was adopted.

Secure of a specific indication, response to risk management (From the viewpoint of business managers)
Secure of a specific indication for decision-making is a very important issue for business managers. VR can visualize the specific image from the stage of concept for a new construction and extension or reconstruction of building, and it can be a method which can surely reflect the desired concept for a new hospital.

It can prevent the oversight of a plan and execute the verification of validity specifically, and that makes the accuracy of decision-making improved.

Moreover various simulations are possible by using VR. For business managers, the risk management, especially the prevention of an earthquake and tsunami etc, are extremely important recently, and simulation and analysis using VR can predict the damage at the time of disaster occurrence by visualizing the image and has a merit which can confirm the importance of provision.

Evacuation analysis
It can verify the evacuation procedure at the time of fires and earthquakes by conducting evacuation analysis inside of the hospital. The specific verification at the level of concept and design before constructing a hospital is possible.(Figure15)¡
Figure15 Evacuation analysis

Verification of layout inside of the building
  • Layout at the time of remodeling and expansion
  • Goods placement inside of a hospital

Evacuation route, verification of escape route sign
  • Escape route from each hospital ward and a hospital room
  • Placement of escape route sign

Verification of evacuation guidance by age and sex
  • Evacuation procedure considering the age, sex and walking ability of  hospital patients.

EXODUS Evacuation Analysis Support Service
Evacuation calculation method certified by Tokyo Fire Department ("Floor evacuation" March, 2011): Forum8 uses analysis method certified by Tokyo Fire Department as an evacuation calculation method and offers the evacuation analysis service in facility such as hospital etc.
Future development
This service conducts VR suggestion for medical organization. New service of Forum8 in medical field such as a simulation service of medical, an application of high performance computing on cloud service in a medical practice etc, which uses the VR technology Forum8 has cultivated is also something to look forward to.
(Up&Coming 2011 Late Fall Issue)

FORUM8