Search

The inspection, analysis, and modification of robot programs in series production processes is a challenging recurring task in the automotive industry. Especially the holistic analysis of detected defects and the subsequent derivation and application of corrective measures to the underlying robot program is a complex task requiring extensive knowledge in multiple fields. Existing scientific literature has demonstrated that the utilisation of Augmented Reality (AR) assisted robot programming systems (ARRPS) improves programming efficiency as well as intuitiveness when compared to traditional programming methods. However, the accuracy especially of mobile AR devices limits the applicability of AR in industrial applications. We propose to leverage the iterative nature of the optimisation process common in series production and utilise the visual capabilities of the human worker to define corrective measures based on the inspected real process result. This mitigates the impact of limited tracking accuracy as the optimisation is based on the visual perception of the user and thus decoupled from the accuracy of the employed AR device. We implemented our system based on the requirements of a sealing workstation of the Mercedes-Benz Group in Germany. A conducted experiment validates the functionality and indicates that the presented strategy of iterative AR assisted robot programming enables optimisations with a similar accuracy as the Teach-In programming as well as a significantly reduced programming time. This suggests that utilising an ARRPS can be highly beneficial in the inspection, analysis, and modification of sealing applications common in automotive series production processes. As the presented iterative AR assisted robot programming is neither limited to sealing nor to the automotive sector it can be adapted for various robot-automated applications like path-welding, gluing, or painting and can extend its utility to related sectors such as aviation or the marine industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leading a socially engaged life is beneficial for the well-being of older adults. Immersive technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), have the potential to provide more engaging and vivid communication experiences compared to conventional digital tools. This qualitative study adopts a human-centered approach to discern the general attitudes and specific requirements of older adults regarding interpersonal communication facilitated by AR. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with a sample of N = 30 older adults from Germany. During the interviews, participants evaluated storyboard illustrations depicting a fictional AR-enabled communication scenario centered around a grandparent and their adult grandchildren, which were represented as avatars within the AR environment. The study identified technological, emotional, social, and administrative requirements of older adults regarding the AR communication system. Based on these findings, we provide practical recommendations aimed at more inclusive technology design, emphasizing the significance of addressing the emotional needs of older adults, especially the perceived intimacy of AR-based interpersonal communication. Acknowledging and catering to these emotional needs is crucial, as it impacts the adoption of immersive technologies and the realization of their social benefits. This study contributes to the development of user-friendly AR systems that effectively promote and foster social engagement among older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitalization of everyday school life has gained increasing importance for teachers in recent years. In Germany, this is especially true since the publication of the strategy on "Education in the Digital World" by the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in 2016, which calls for the acquisition of digital competencies by students. In this regard, it is of great importance that future teachers acquire important skills in the field of digitalization during their teacher training in order to effectively and pedagogically use digital media in instruction. In this paper, we present the concept of an intervention on the topic of "Simulation and Modeling" from the competency framework DiKoLAN, which provides possible guidance in relation to the question "which competencies in the field of digitalization should be taught during teacher training?" One focus of the presented concept is the technology of "Augmented Reality," which has already been described as an effective teaching and learning tool. Furthermore, evaluation results of the seminar are presented, which examine both the effectiveness in terms of conveying the desired competencies through the measurement of self-efficacy expectations, and the attitudes of the pre-service teachers towards the use of AR in science education. The evaluation of the intervention measure shows a significant increase in pre-service teachers' self-efficacy expectations across all areas of competencies to be taught, as well as a significantly more positive attitude towards the use of AR in science teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Die Urologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During crisis situations, emergency operators require fast information access to achieve situation awareness and make the best possible decisions. Augmented reality could be used to visualize the wealth of user-generated content available on social media and enable context-adaptive functions for emergency operators. Although emergency operators agree that social media analytics will be important for their future work, it poses a challenge to filter and visualize large amounts of social media data. We conducted a goal-directed task analysis to identify the situation awareness requirements of emergency operators. By collecting tweets during two storms in Germany we evaluated the usefulness of Twitter data for achieving situation awareness and conducted interviews with emergency operators to derive filter strategies for social media data. We synthesized the results by discussing how the unique interface of augmented reality can be used to integrate social media data into emergency control rooms for situation awareness support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that has benefited from the massification of computational devices, putting it in the focus of researchers as a novel teaching aid in engineering. For this very reason, a great amount of information about AR in engineering education is emerging constantly. To synthesize the information, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried out and 4 research questions were raised. It was found out the researcher´s trend for the development and testing of software that takes advantage of AR for engineering students. It was also found that Germany and India are the leading nations on investigations about the investigated topic. On the software side, Unity is the most used tool for creating applications and that the target hardware is smartphone. Finally, the high interest of researchers to increase motivation in students is evidenced in this SLR and recommendations were made based on the researcher’s findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media companies often fail to successfully adopt emergent technology-driven media innovations. In order to analyse the pitfalls of implementation and to identify media-organisation-specific weaknesses, eleven cases from the media and manufacturing industries in Germany that adopted XR (which encompasses virtual, mixed and augmented reality technology) were compared. Several organisational drivers were especially important for successful adoption such as top management support, existence of an innovation champion, fit with the company/innovation strategy, cooperation with internal IT and long-term planning for the build-up of sustainable expertise within the companies. Whereas the media firms profited in some regards from their editorial background (i.e., high motivation of the projects' innovation champions), the lack of strategic planning and limited internal IT resources were found to hamper a successful adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Augmented reality improves planning and execution of surgical procedures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a 3D augmented reality hologram in live parotic surgery. Another goal was to develop an accuracy measuring instrument and to determine the accuracy of the system. Methods: We created a software to build and manually align 2D and 3D augmented reality models generated from MRI data onto the patient during surgery using the HoloLens® 1 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, USA). To assess the accuracy of the system, we developed a specific measuring tool applying a standard electromagnetic navigation device (Fiagon GmbH, Hennigsdorf, Germany). Results: The accuracy of our system was measured during real surgical procedures. Training of the experimenters and the use of fiducial markers significantly reduced the accuracy of holographic system (p = 0.0166 and p = 0.0132). Precision of the developed measuring system was very high with a mean error of the basic system of 1.3 mm. Feedback evaluation demonstrated 86% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the HoloLens will play a role in surgical education. Furthermore, 80% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the HoloLens is feasible to be introduced in clinical routine and will play a role within surgery in the future. Conclusion: The use of fiducial markers and repeated training reduces the positional error between the hologram and the real structures. The developed measuring device under the use of the Fiagon navigation system is suitable to measure accuracies of holographic augmented reality images of the HoloLens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The augmented reality smartphone game Pokémon Go is one of the biggest commercial successes in the last years, posing the question concerning the factors contributing to the game's success. An apparent distinction to other games is the strong brand Pokémon. We derive a research model based on the established theory of technology acceptance, which includes an established construct for nostalgic feelings – childhood brand nostalgia – and theorise on how it is related to beliefs about technology characteristics and the intention to play the game. For this purpose, we adapt one of the most prominent technology acceptance models for the consumer context and for hedonic information systems, the UTAUT2 model. Based on our model, we conduct a study with 418 active German players aged between 18 and 35. Our results indicate that the effect of childhood brand nostalgia on behavioural intention is fully mediated by the belief constructs. Thus, nostalgic feelings about Pokémon influence the intention of users through altering beliefs concerning Pokémon. We include nostalgic feelings in a technology acceptance model for the first time, therefore contributing to the theoretical advance in the IS domain. The results can be used to enhance the technology acceptance of newly designed products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is accelerating the digitisation of many branches of the economy. In production, it is often called Industry 4.0 - the term invented by Prof. Wahlster in Germany. One branch of ' Production Digitisation' is Augmented Reality (AR)- a technology that gives a very convenient and natural human-machine interface. Users are presented with the information requested, right in front of their eyes, and can communicate with the system through simple gestures and speech. The key advantage of AR is having one's handsfree so that the user can perform his/her regular tasks, unhindered. In the first part of this paper, the concept of using AR glasses, in the quality control process, is presented. The present authors describe a proprietary support system. A specific example is then given in a real production environment on a real production process, comparing the old way with the new AR way of conducting test procedures. An evaluation of its usability is characterised using important factors that can affect the final outcome or features of the product and the manner in which it is applied in real life. In concluding, the authors focus on its advantages, the disadvantages, the technological imperfections, and the limitations and go on to deliberate on the conclusions and further research topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization is changing medicine. In Germany these changes are not highly accepted yet. Medical pathways should be supported and become safer by digital transformation. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI) applications are increasingly used in medicine. Only time will tell whether these will decrease the workload and make patient treatment easier, while increasing precision and individualization.. Urology must accept the upcoming new challenges. This can best be done by participating in the development., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Objective: To evaluate the delivery, acceptance and experiences regarding a traditional and teletreatment approach to mirror therapy as delivered in a randomized controlled trial. Design: Mixed methods, prospective study. Setting: Rehabilitation centres, hospital and private practices. Subjects: Adult patients with phantom pain following lower limb amputation and their treating physical and occupational therapists. Interventions: All patients received 4 weeks of traditional mirror therapy (n = 51), followed by 6 weeks of teletreatment (n = 26) or 6 weeks of self-delivered mirror therapy (n = 25). Main measures: Patient files, therapist logs, log files teletreatment, acceptance questionnaire and interviews with patients and their therapists. Results: In all, 51 patients and 10 therapists participated in the process evaluation. Only 16 patients (31%) received traditional mirror therapy according to the clinical framework during the first 4 weeks. Between weeks 5 and 10, the teletreatment was used by 14 patients (56%) with sufficient dose. Teletreatment usage decreased from a median number of 31 (weeks 5–10) to 19 sessions (weeks 11–24). Satisfactory teletreatment user acceptance rates were found with patients demonstrating higher scores (e.g. regarding the usefulness to control pain) than therapists. Potential barriers for implementation of the teletreatment perceived by patients and therapists were related to insufficient training and support as well as the frequency of technical problems. Conclusion: Traditional mirror therapy and the teletreatment were not delivered as intended in the majority of patients. Implementation of the teletreatment in daily routines was challenging, and more research is needed to evaluate user characteristics that influence adherence and how technology features can be optimized to develop tailored implementation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose:New rehabilitation strategies for post-stroke upper limb rehabilitation employing visual stimulation show promising results, however, cost-efficient and clinically feasible ways to provide these interventions are still lacking. An integral step is to translate recent technological advances, such as in virtual and augmented reality, into therapeutic practice to improve outcomes for patients. This requires research on the adaptation of the technology for clinical use as well as on the appropriate guidelines and protocols for sustainable integration into therapeutic routines. Here, we present and evaluate a novel and affordable augmented reality system (Augmented Reflection Technology, ART) in combination with a validated mirror therapy protocol for upper limb rehabilitation after stroke. Method:We evaluated components of the therapeutic intervention, from the patients’ and the therapists’ points of view in a clinical feasibility study at a rehabilitation centre. We also assessed the integration of ART as an adjunct therapy for the clinical rehabilitation of subacute patients at two different hospitals. Results:The results showed that the combination and application of theBerlin Protocol for Mirror Therapytogether with ART was feasible for clinical use. This combination was integrated into the therapeutic plan of subacute stroke patients at the two clinical locations where the second part of this research was conducted. Conclusions:Our findings pave the way for using technology to provide mirror therapy in clinical settings and show potential for the more effective use of inpatient time and enhanced recoveries for patients. Implications for RehabilitationComputerised Mirror Therapy is feasible for clinical useAugmented Reflection Technology can be integrated as an adjunctive therapeutic intervention for subacute stroke patients in an inpatient settingVirtual Rehabilitation devices such as Augmented Reflection Technology have considerable potential to enhance stroke rehabilitation [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The #VisDom (visualization of data and information - symposium at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam) took place for the second time at the university's department of information sciences from 27th to 28th May 2016. Whereas the 2015 symposium dealt exclusively with the visual representation, especially with the use of AR, the 2016 range of topics was considerably broader and focused on the principle of "smart libraries". This report summarizes the main contributions to the discussion and the contents of the conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participants: A. Baumeister (GERMANY), J. Bleja (Germany), B. Klein (Germany), A. Kucharski (GERMANY) S. MERKEL (GERMANY), M. Ringwald (GERMANY), B. KLEIN (discussant) ISSUE: The session circles around new technologies that have gained increasing relevance for the field of gerontechnology. It follows the idea that these new technologies ask for new theories and methods not only to understand their technical functionality but also social aspects and consequences. Applying theories and methods of social sciences, sciences, and technology studies (STS) and media studies, the session follows an interdisciplinary approach. CONTENT: The symposium brings together research and evidence of the German speaking chapters of the ISG (Austria, Germany, and Switzerland) and covers a broad spectrum of recent developments. STRUCTURE: Alexander Kucharski shares insights from an exploratory study on the domestication of smart speakers by older persons in Germany. Drawing on seven case studies he explores perspectives of older smart speaker users on their real-world domestication processes of smart speakers to understand how older users negotiate(d) the appropriation, meaning and (non)-use of smart speakers and its contents/applications within their individual socio-technical contexts, i.e. life-worlds. Sebastian Merkel also deals with the topic of smart speakers by focusing on applications or so-called skills and images of ageing. He concludes that most skills addressed at older persons rather emphasize deficit-oriented/medicalized images of aging and hence user representations. J. Bleja reports on the development of a chatbot operated via smart speakers for care consultation. As a first task expert interviews have been carried out. The results indicate potential use cases, support of the anamnesis procedure being one of them. In the next two contributions, the focus is on assistive robotics. Annalies Baumeister presents a project to improve the use of a robotic arm for people with little or no arm function by an adaptive AI-based control system. In Workshops and interviews with the user groups everyday scenarios were identified which can improve significantly by this new way of user-robot-interaction. Key factor for acceptance is the embodiment of robots. Marina Ringwald presents the interdisciplinary development of an embodiment utilizing participatory design with older people as potential user group. Design options are realized in 3D models in augmented reality and evaluated in an iterative approach before a physical prototype is produced. Finally, Barbara Klein addresses the need to train professionals in the health and social care sector in these assistive digital technologies by presenting a certification course developed by a consortium of twelve partner in a European project. The materials will help professionals learn about and further communicate new solutions to support the independence and self-determination of their clients and beneficiaries. CONCLUSION: Consequently, it is argued that gerontechnology benefits from a closer cooperation and knowledge exchange of interdisciplinary research teams including professionals and user groups. Participatory design and involving older users and other stakeholders are key elements, but still more research is needed, especially when utilizing new methods such as augmented reality in the design and development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report from a June 11-13, 2015 conference in Oranienburg and Berlin, Germany on German and Polish memorials to Nazi war crimes hosted by the Sachsenhausen memorial and museum as well as the Berlin center for historical research at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Topics of presentations delivered Polish and German collective memories of the 20th century, the design and construction of verious sorts of memorials, and the use of an augmented reality system at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp memorial.

Intraaxial tumors of the central lobe are challenging lesions to deal with because of the high eloquence of this anatomic area. 1,2 Diffusion tensor imaging magnetic resonance imaging and fluorescein (F) have proven to be useful in the planning and execution, respectively of glioma surgery. 3-9 Nevertheless, the advantages of intraoperative use of augmented reality (AR) with diffusion tensor imaging−based high-definition fiber tractography (HDFT) are still underestimated. In the AR HDFT-F technique reported by our group, the integration of AR into the microscope comes through the BrainLAB Curve navigation platform (BrainLAB AG, Munich Germany), Smartbrush software (BrainLAB AG), KINEVO 900 surgical microscope (Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany), and YELLOW 560 filter (Carl Zeiss). 9 The microscope establishes a wired autodetection of the navigation platform, and the eyepiece functions as a "see-through display" of the AR images, which are overlapped onto the surgical field. Video 1 shows the technical key aspects of the intraoperative use of the AR HDFT-F technique in the maximal safe anatomic resection of a postcentral gyrus high-grade glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors reviewed the empirical augmented reality (AR) and online education studies, and those focused on designing or development of AR to help students learn, published in SSCI, SCI-EXPANDED, and A&HCI journals from 2003 to 2012. The authors in this study found that the number of AR and online education studies has significantly increased since 2009. Based on this review, it is found that contributors from Spain, Romania, Taiwan, and Germany had the most publications on AR and online education during 2003 to 2012. Moreover, the analysis of these selected papers reveals that most empirical AR and online education studies were conducted at universities, as well as in computer science courses. Furthermore, the quantitative research method was used more in the reviewed papers. The findings and analysis from this review may provide potential directions and insights for future AR and online education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, more than half of all building activity in the German building sector is undertaken within existing built contexts. The development of a conceptual and technological basis for the digital support of design directly on site, within an existing building context is the focus of the research project "Spatial Augmented Reality for Architecture" (SAR).This paper describes the goals achieved in one aspect of the project: the sampling of colors and materials at a scale of 1:1 using Augmented Realit (AR) technologies. We present initial results from the project; the development of an ad-hoc visualization of interactive data on arbitrary surfaces in real-world indoor environments using a mobile hardware setup. With this, it was possible to project the color and material qualities of a design directly onto almost all surfaces within a geometrically corrected, existing building. Initially, a software prototype "Spatial Augmented Reality for Architecture-Colored Architecture" (SAR-CA) was developed and then assessed based on evaluation results from a user study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: E-Health is of increasing importance in ensuring demand-oriented health care. In addition to technical feasibility, issues concerning the normative requirements for their use are growing. This paper discusses the ethical, legal and social implications of the use of mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies in the therapy of elderly people with hypertension. It is based on the results of a study conducted as a part of the BMBF project BewARe., Methods: In the context of the above-mentioned background, an expert workshop was held with various stakeholders in an early phase of the BewARe project in accordance with the MEESTAR model, in which ethical, social and legal requirements for the development and use of AR/MR technologies were anticipated. The results of the workshop were subsequently evaluated using content analysis., Results: Content analysis identified eight main challenges for the development and use of AR/MR technologies in the therapy of elderly people with hypertension: ethical challenges for the decision-making and action capacity of older users (1), stereotyping (2), user-oriented development and implementation (3), data protection (4), support (5), health risks (6), social participation (7), and the need for an integrative approach (8)., Discussion: In line with other studies, it can be shown that orientation towards medical guidelines and behavioral principles is essential to promote acceptance and adherence among end users and to minimize potential health risks. In addition, end users should be more strongly involved in the development process to overcome existing user stereotypes and establish qualification strategies for health-promoting use. Finally, legal and health economic framework conditions must be created to ensure data security and sustainable application concepts., Conclusion: For a successful diffusion of AR/MR applications in health care, a holistic implementation concept is required which must involve various groups of social actors. In this context, the article discusses eight main challenges that can be understood as current challenges in this process., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

Digitalization of production environment, also called Industry 4.0 (the term invented by Wahlster Wolfgang in Germany) is now one of the hottest topics in the computer science departments at universities and companies. One of the most significant topics in this area is augmented reality (AR). The interest in AR has grown especially after the introduction of the Microsoft HoloLens in 2016, which made this technology available for researchers and developers all around the world. It is divided into numerous subtopics and technologies. These wireless, see-through glasses give a very natural human-machine interface, with the possibility to present certain necessary information right in front of the user's eyes as 3D virtual objects, in parallel with the observation of the real world, and the possibility to communicate with the system by simple gestures and speech. Scientists noted that in-depth studies connected to the effects of AR applications are presently sparse. In the first part of this paper, the authors recall the research from 2019 about the new method of manual wiring support with the AR glasses. In the second part, the study (tests) for this method carried out by the research team is described. The method was applied in the actual production environment with consideration of the actual production process, which is manual wiring of the industrial enclosures (control cabinets). Finally, authors deliberate on conclusions, technology's imperfections, limitations, and future possible development of the presented solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly gaining importance as a valuable methodical tool for psychological research. The greatest benefit of using VR is generating rich, complex and vivid, but still highly controllable settings. As VR has been found to elicit lifelike psychophysiological and emotional responses, we examined by means of a height exposure whether VR resembles physical reality to the necessary degree to constitute a suitable framework for investigating real-life behavior in a controlled experimental context. As hypothesized, participants behaved in VR exactly as would be appropriate in a real environment: Being exposed to great height, participants walked significantly slower across a virtual steel girder construction protruding from a high-rise building as compared to participants who traversed the very same construction on the ground level. In the height condition, this realistic behavior could be predicted on basis of the participants' trait anxiety. Aligned with the behavioral responses, they showed realistic psychophysiological responses, i.e., an elevated heart rate when exposed to height. Interestingly, participants of the height condition reported a greater sense of presence, which indicates that emotions have an elevating effect on presence. As a conclusion, our findings provide further evidence that VR evokes lifelike responses at both behavioral and psychophysiological level and therefore increases ecological validity of psychological experiments.

Bayard-Alpert (BA) type hot cathode ionisation gauge is widely used to measure neutral pressure precisely in vacuum system below 10−3 Torr pressure. Neutral pressure measurement in magnetic confinement fusion experiments is quite challenging for standard BA type gauge due to higher pressure limitation and its ionisation is affected by strong magnetic and electrical fields. To overcome the above limitations, a special hot cathode ionisation gauge, named ASDEX Pressure Gauge (APG) system was developed by G. Haas at the Max-Planck-Institute, Germany. The APG system can work in high magnetic field up to 6 T and high temperature plasma environment with broad pressure measurement range from 10−1 to 10−6 mbar with fast response (<10 msec) and good noise immunity. In the present work, we report the design and development of control and data acquisition of ASDEX Pressure Gauge (APG) for ADITYA Tokamak to measure real time neutral pressure during the high temperature plasma. The developed system can achieve synchronous control of gauge controller using General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) and data acquisition of ion emission current of gauge head using Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) based data acquisition module. Initially, the APG calibration with standard BA type hot cathode ionization gauge had been carried out using the test set-up of low magnetic field and ultrahigh vacuum system with gases like H 2 , Ar, He. For APG calibration for various pressure ranges of these gases, precise gas feed control system has been developed using controller based hardware and LabVIEW based software. After testing and calibration, the APG was installed on ADITYA tokamak and calibrated under high magnetic field of ADITYA. The developed APG control system is configurable for presenting the gauge parameters before the plasma discharge. During plasma discharge, the analog signal equivalent to neutral pressure is acquired in real-time using simultaneous sampling analog to digital converter (ADC) module. The acquired raw data and processed real time pressure can provide valuable neutral pressure/density information of Tokamak plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented Reality has been utilized for surgical training. During the implementation, displaying instructional information at the right moment is critical for skill acquisition. We built a new surgical training platform combining augmented reality system (HoloLens, Microsoft) with an eye-tracker (Pupil labs, Germany). Our goal is to detect the moments of performance difficulty using the integrated eye-tracker so that the system could display instructions at the precise moment when the user is seeking instructional information during a surgical skill practice in simulation. In the paper, we describe the system design, system calibration and data transferring between these devices.

Background: At the Medical Faculty of the University of Ulm, the learning objectives of ophthalmology are taught to students in a one-week block course in the fourth year of study. According to the National Competency-based Learning Objective Catalogue Medicine (NKLM), one of these learning objectives is the clinical examination of the eye, including the eye fundus examination. In order to best train this expertise as defined in the NKLM, a novel, augmented reality-based training simulator (Eyesi Indirect, VRmagic Holding AG, Mannheim, Germany) was integrated into the teaching at the University Eye Hospital Ulm. During the block week, two key questions were examined: Does the one week block lesson increase interest in ophthalmology? How do students assess the use of an innovative e-learning technology compared to three other classical teaching methods for learning ophthalmoscopy?, Material/methods: As part of the student teaching (block weeks July and October 2016), 292 students were questioned by questionnaire anonymously and on a voluntary basis regarding their assessment of the block week and the training simulator at the beginning and end of the one week event. The ophthalmoscopies were classically practiced on the ophthalmoscope trainer, head model and on fellow students and then performed on the new training simulator., Results: Overall, there was little interest among the students in ophthalmology. However, the block week helped to increase interest (p < 0.001). The assessments of attractiveness before and after the block week of ophthalmology as a later professional goal and as an optional subject in the practical year were also significantly increased (p < 0.001 or p = 0.031). With regard to the use of e-learning technologies, it was shown that the handling of the simulator for learning ophthalmoscopy was rated more attractive by the students than the classical technology-based teaching methods (all p < 0.01). The joy of learning could only be further increased by practicing on a fellow student (p = 0.051)., Conclusion: The results of the present study show a positive impact of the block week on the attractiveness assessment of the specialty by the participating students. Innovative e-learning methods can increase the enjoyment of learning. However, the training simulator cannot provide a complete replacement of the training on a real person., Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders in Germany. Exposure therapy has proven effective in treating anxiety disorders. During exposure therapy, patients are systematically confronted with the feared stimulus or situation. Exposure therapy can be conducted in vivo or in sensu. Recently, a considerable amount of research on virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) in the treatment of anxiety disorders-especially phobias-has been published. During virtual reality exposure therapy, patients are confronted with a virtual representation of the feared stimulus or situation. There are many studies showing that virtual reality exposure therapy is effective-especially in treating specific phobias. One major advantage of virtual reality exposure therapy is that therapists can easily control the feared object or situation. Furthermore, virtual reality exposure therapy requires less organizational effort and is less time-consuming than exposure therapy in vivo. The principal disadvantage of virtual reality exposure therapy is the danger of cyber sickness. With the development of affordable user-friendly systems, therapists may increasingly use virtual reality exposure therapy to treat patients suffering from anxiety disorders. With respect to the future development of virtual reality exposure therapy, augmented reality seems to be a promising treatment alternative. Future studies need to confirm the efficacy of augmented reality exposure therapy in treating anxiety disorders.