Using virtual reality for anatomical landmark annotation in geometric morphometrics

To study the shape of objects using geometric morphometrics, landmarks are oftentimes collected digitally from a 3D scanned model. The expert may annotate landmarks using software that visualizes the 3D model on a flat screen, and interaction is achieved with a mouse and a keyboard. However, landmar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2022-02, Vol.10, p.e12869-e12869, Article e12869
Main Authors: Messer, Dolores, Atchapero, Michael, Jensen, Mark B, Svendsen, Michelle S, Galatius, Anders, Olsen, Morten T, Frisvad, Jeppe R, Dahl, Vedrana A, Conradsen, Knut, Dahl, Anders B, Bærentzen, Andreas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3D annotation
Accuracy
Analysis
Annotations
Computer applications
Computer programs
Data Science
Geometric morphometrics
Haptics
Interfaces
Keyboards
Mathematics
Measurement error
Morphology
Morphometry
Skull
Software
Software utilities
Stratovan checkpoint
Students
Virtual morphology
Virtual Reality
Zoology
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Summary:To study the shape of objects using geometric morphometrics, landmarks are oftentimes collected digitally from a 3D scanned model. The expert may annotate landmarks using software that visualizes the 3D model on a flat screen, and interaction is achieved with a mouse and a keyboard. However, landmark annotation of a 3D model on a 2D display is a tedious process and potentially introduces error due to the perception and interaction limitations of the flat interface. In addition, digital landmark placement can be more time-consuming than direct annotation on the physical object using a tactile digitizer arm. Since virtual reality (VR) is designed to more closely resemble the real world, we present a VR prototype for annotating landmarks on 3D models. We study the impact of VR on annotation performance by comparing our VR prototype to Stratovan Checkpoint, a commonly used commercial desktop software. We use an experimental setup, where four operators placed six landmarks on six grey seal ( ) skulls in six trials for both systems. This enables us to investigate multiple sources of measurement error. We analyse both for the configuration and for single landmarks. Our analysis shows that annotation in VR is a promising alternative to desktop annotation. We find that annotation precision is comparable between the two systems, with VR being significantly more precise for one of the landmarks. We do not find evidence that annotation in VR is faster than on the desktop, but it is accurate.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.12869