Epic Games launched its $100,000,000 USD Epic MegaGrants initiative to support Unreal Engine developers earlier this year, no matter what field they worked in. Virteasy Dental, a company specialising in educating university students via a haptic simulator has just received a grant to help it develop the platform for Unreal Engine including virtual reality (VR) support.
Currently, the Virteasy Dental uses a 3D HD screen with a haptic arm and dental grip. This allows students to sit at a work station, don a pair of 3D specs and then work on CGI characters to improve their skills. With the grant, Virteasy Dental will continue to develop a VR prototype already in the works which has been combined with a haptic device to simulate drilling.
“This is a huge day not only for Virteasy but also for haptic and VR simulation in dentistry in general. A huge sign of confidence in the growing market of advanced haptic simulation within universities and could offer unbelievable benefits for both existing and new customers of Virteasy Dental,” said James Markey, Head of Sales and Product Owner for Virteasy.
“By combining our existing haptic skills and software with the power of Unreal will really open up the potential for our dental simulator and all existing clients will benefit from this. Furthermore, if our developments continue to progress this well with the virtual reality headsets this could open up Virteasy to new markets and make dental haptic simulation much more widely accessible.”
“The MegaGrant not only gives us much welcome finance to take advantage of Unreal as our new engine but gives us access to contacts within Epic Games who have been incredibly helpful in supporting us to integrating haptic devices and the sense of touch into the virtual world.”
Virteasy Dental also hopes to update its simulators with the following improvements:
- Enhanced lights / shadows for increased depth perception
- An upgraded virtual scene
- A new virtual patient
- Interactions within the scene (change the inclination of the dental chair, move the patient light etc)
- Unparalleled customisation of the virtual patient to match the real patient whose scans are being used
As Virteasy Dental continues to expand into VR, VRFocus will keep you updated.