MedIClab- Universidad Politécnica de Valencia - UPV (Principal Contractor - Spain )     Contact person for the project: Prof. Alcaniz Mariano     The role of MedIClab in the Consortium is to offer the technical expertise required for the development of the Anxiety Disorders module. In particular MedIClab: - will assist the consortium in addressing the ergonomic issues related to the development of the VR modules; - will develop the Anxiety Disorders module. The Medical Image Computing Laboratory (MedIClab) in the department of Graphical Engineering started its activities in 1990. MedIClab has four main research activities: Image processing, real time 3D graphics, biomechanical simulation and natural human-computer interfaces. These research activities are grouped in four working groups: Image Processing, Image Guided Surgery, Surgery simulation and Virtual Reality in clinical psychology. Virtual Reality in clinical psychology research activities is centred in the development and clinical trials of VR applications for psychotherapy. We have developed applications for the treatment of claustrophobia, eating disorders and fear of flying with very promising results regarding clinicaltrials. During these research activities several theoretical problems are being addressed. Among others we can cite to investigate the influence of several software/hardware solutions on the sense of presence of the patient in the VE, to develop more natural interfaces for the manipulation of objects and interactions in the VE. This research has leaded to the development of haptic interfaces for "walking" in VE and to develop visualization systems that avoid the use of HMD as a more natural way of VE visualization. In this sense we are actually working in the design and   development of low cost immersive big format stereoscopic visualization systems.       MedIClab is supported by personnel and collective research grants from the Commission of the European Union (Project HIPERCIR, ESPRIT programme, Project: Computer to Screen, ESPRIT programme), the Spanish Government (MEC, CICYT, FIS) and the Valencia Autonomous Community Government (CAV, IMPIVA). Some related national and european projects IMPIVA 971801003646: "Image guided surgery system with enhanced reality capabilities. Application to brain neurosurgery and radiosurgery" EC ESPRIT PROGRAMME HIPERTTN EP24003 HIPERCIR: "HIPERCIR" High PERformance Computing Integrated Radiology IMPIVA 971801003556 "Development of high realism techniques for virtual reality systems in PC platforms. Application to clinical psychology" Generalitat Valenciana GV-D-ES-17-123-96 "Virtual reality and clinical psychology: Development of a high realism virtual environment with 3D motion body capture. Application to the treatment of claustrophobia" European Comunity - FEDER 1FD97-0260-c02-02 "Development of virtual reality products with haptic interfaces for the treatment of agoraphobia, eating disorders and fear of flying." FIS 003646 "Development of a specific therapeutic component for the body image in the treatment of eating disorders. Application by mena of standard methods and VR methods" Key researcher for the group is Prof. Mariano Alcañiz. He completed his M.S. in industrial engineering at the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), Valencia in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1992. Since 1986 he has been a scientific fellow in the Department of Graphical at the UPV, where he has dealt with Computer Graphics. His current position is Senior Lector and Head of the Medical Image Computing Laboratory (MedIClab). His research interests and current activity involve computer methods and algorithms for medical image processing, 3D medical imaging, Computer Integrated Surgery and Virtual Reality technology applied to Medicine. He is member of the International Society for Computer Applications in Radiology (SCAR), Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE-EMBS) and International Society for Computer Aided Surgery (ISCAS). He is author and co-author of more than 60 scientific papers in national and international scientific journals and conference proceedings.     Recent papers     ALCAÑIZ, M.; MONTSERRAT, C.; GRAU, V.; CHINESTA, F.; RAMÓN, A.; & ALBALAT, S. (1998). An advanced system for the simulation and planning of orthodontic treatment . Medical Image Analysis, Vol. 2 (1), pp. 61-79. ALCAÑIZ, M.; CHINESTA, F.; ALBALAT, S.; GRAU, V.; & MONSERRAT, C. (1998). A new system for 3D planning of orthodontic treatments and 3D tooth movement simulation. In Middleton J., Jones M.L. and Pande G.N. (eds), Computer Methods in Biomechanics & Biomedical Engineering -2, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, pp.645-654. KNOLL, C.; ALCAÑIZ, M.; GRAU, V.; JUAN, C.; & MONSERRAT, C. (in press) Outlining of the prostate using snakes with shape restrictions based on the wavelet transform. Pattern Recognition. BOTELLA, C.; BAÑOS, R.; PERPIÑÁ, C.; VILLA, H.; ALCAÑIZ, M.; & REY A. (1997). Virtual Reality Treatment of Claustrophobia: a case report. Behaviour Research and Therapy, Vol. 36, pp. 239-246. BOTELLA, C.; QUERO, S.; PERPIÑÁ, C.; BAÑOS, R.M.; ALCAÑIZ, M.; LOZANO, J.A.; & REY, A. (1998). Virtual Environments for the Treatment of Claustrophobia. International Journal of Virtual Reality, Vol. 3 (3), pp. 8-13. BOTELLA, C.; QUERO, S.; PERPIÑÁ, C.; BAÑOS, R.M.; ALCAÑIZ, M.; LOZANO, J.A.; REY, A. Differences on presence and reality judgement using a high impact workstation and PC workstation. Proceedings of Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 7. San Francisco, February 1999.