Author: Caleb Carpenter | Major: Computer Science | Semester: Summer 2025
Caleb Carpenter using the Magic Leap 2 headset to interact with an augmented reality teaching software he created.
My name is Caleb Carpenter, a computer science major who, throughout the Summer of 2025, has been working diligently with Dr. Alejandro Martin Gomez and professors at the Institute of Integrative and Innovative Research to create an augmented reality tool to assist in medical education and training here at the University of Arkansas. My goal this summer was to create detailed demonstrations of how augmented reality could be applied in the field of nursing to present to the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing to facilitate conversation about the integration of such tools in their program.
Augmented Reality is an emerging technology capable of enriching our perception of the real world by embedding computer-generated content that interacts with its physical counterparts. In recent years, this technology has seen a spike in interest in fields such as entertainment, used in popular apps like Pokémon GO and face filters on popular social media apps. More focused developments of this technology have proven to be an effective new medium for education, with studies showing that students using it depict higher engagement, motivation, and retention rates. This is even more apparent in the medical field, where complex 3D structures of the body and tasks involving precise physical movements are difficult to teach in a textbook and require new and innovative teaching methods. This is where my research pivoted to anatomy education and creating a tool to demonstrate augmented reality’s potential in nursing education.
Our goal was to create three different learning experiences of augmented reality in anatomy education that may be of interest to the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing, which, with their permission, we could use to research its effectiveness in helping students learn versus traditional methods. The first demonstration created was a general anatomy teaching tool that displayed the entire human anatomy in a full-scale capacity that allowed users to explore in a visually one-to-one way. Using a GUI, users could turn off different systems to view different parts of the body. We believed this baseline tool would be a good starting point for our demonstration, as it showed the general use case of augmented reality.
Secondly, we created a tool that gamified the learning process by making users interact with a pelvis model. In this learning experience, the user is prompted to select different regions of the pelvis by pointing and clicking at the region they think most accurately describes the prompt. This game also features a timer that tracks the user’s time until completion to encourage repeat memorization and practice, further displaying the learning potential of implementing this technology. Through an extensive literature review, we found that gamification can significantly increase retention and engagement of learning, and due to the interactive nature of augmented reality, it seemed fitting to create a tool that implemented this concept into the demonstration.
To conclude our demonstration, we created a tool that enables users to input DICOM data from volumetric medical images such as MRI and CT scans into an algorithm and then view that data 3D rendered within an augmented reality environment. My mentor’s expertise in both the computer science and medical fields was paramount in this demonstration, as it was a completely new topic for me. He helped guide me through the process, taught me about rendering tools, how different volumetric medical images are taken, and the path to follow to create the demonstration. Volumetric medical images can be difficult for students to understand as they are viewed in a 2D context, so slices of different scans may not be as easily recognizable as 3D reconstructions. This tool eases them into the process of understanding this data interactively, allowing data to be seen in a 3D context when desired, and transform it into a 2D environment when the student feels confident. The flexibility of the models that could be used was also paramount in creating a dynamic learning experience for the students.
After creating the three demonstrations, my mentor and I visited Simulation Coordinator Emily Offenbacker of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing to display our work and decide on our next steps. She expressed great interest in the capabilities of augmented reality in the program and was impressed with the technology we had developed. This conversation led us down different pathways and current issues within the nursing department that seemed very interesting in terms of my own skills and my mentor’s research area. While the use of augmented reality in anatomy education is still an interesting topic and one that has potential for future research, we have pivoted to different kinds of research for the future. Through this meeting, we were guided to different applications of augmented reality capabilities, such as IV training, augmented reality simulations of patients, and many more topics that we can create novel solutions for, as well as being tools that are particularly interesting to the nursing school. Through creating these learning experiences, I was able to form valuable connections with the school of nursing which will foster a new path to solving problems within the nursing school using the skills I have gained throughout this semester.