The worst part about being a science major is walking into your lab and taking a breath, only to be assaulted by the smell of formaldehyde-preserved animals, reminding you that today is, in fact, a dissection lab. Perhaps you have a weak stomach and are easily nauseated by the smell and sight of organs. Or maybe you’re an animal rights activist and don’t believe in killing and preserving animals for the sake of dissection and believe there’s another way. That’s where OFPF comes in.
OFPF is primarily an augmented reality-based program that allows college students to dissect a vast array of animals and plants, without ever having to harm an actual animal. The HTC Vive-based simulation will combine simulated animals, ragdoll physics, and various “random encounters” that mimic the occasional odd specimen in a real dissection.
While not an original concept, what separates OFPF from the current dissection simulations out there, is the use of the HTC Vive’s controllers and attention to detail in the physics and especially the motions of the player. Should the player cut with a shaky hand, for example, the incision would mimic the shakiness of the player’s motion.
Simpler editions of the program are computer-based, and are played using huion’s osu! tablet. The simple edition of the program will contain a cow eye, squid, frog, and worm dissection, while more advanced editions will provide more advanced dissections, such as dogfish, cat, rat, pig, and various other common classroom dissections.
Sources:
Lin, Mike Tz-Yauw, et al. “A Study on the Effect of Virtual Reality 3D Exploratory Education on Students’ Creativity and Leadership.” EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, vol. 13, no. 7, 01 Aug. 2017, pp. 3151-3161. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.stevenson.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1144451&site=ehost-live.
