By Madison Akers

The Maryland Blended Reality Center, which uses visual computing to advance fields like law enforcement and medical training, is regarded as one of the leading centers in the development of virtual and augmented reality.

The program is funded by the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State, and its primary partnership is with the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore and the College of Computer, Mathematics & Natural Sciences (CMNS) at this university, according to the website.

Dr. Amitabh Varnshey, dean of UMD’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) and the center’s co-director, noted the key differences between virtual and augmented reality

Virtual reality goggles, he said, create computer-generated images that immerse us into a completely different world. Augmented reality goggles overlay these images into the real world.

“As an example [of augmented reality], if you were to walk down the street, the street signs would be floating or if you were to go to a party, the name tags of the individuals may appear above their heads,”  Varshney said. “The goggles would not replace what you are seeing, but rather they would augment what you are seeing.”

Varshney said researchers at the center are currently working with UMD’s sociology department and Prince George’s County Police Department on a project that studies people’s unconscious racial biases. Police officers will be able to use virtual reality technology to experience challenges of inner-city youths, and vice versa.

“Because the experiences are so real, it is as if you are actually there, so we believe this could heal the racial divide within our communities,” Varshney said.

The center is also focusing on developing augmented and virtual reality technology for medical applications, such as creating relaxing scenes to decrease pain for patients relying on opioids.

Varshney said that the pathways through which pain and distraction are received are one in the same — and the most severe pain only lasts up to six minutes.

This has been tested by the center itself, according to Dr. Sarah Murthi, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of the Maryland Blended Reality Center activities in Baltimore. Murthi said volunteers at the center placed their arms in warm water, and used virtual reality to test whether their pain level changed.

She said that augmented reality could also improve the doctor-patient relationship, as doctors could check their blood pressure levels or ultrasound footage through virtual reality goggles.

“The last time you saw a doctor, I’m sure the doctor was spending most of the time looking at a computer screen and not you, right?” Murthi said. “Well, doctors don’t like that either, because they spend too much time working on computers, when they would much rather be looking at the patient.”

She said that the collaboration between Shock Trauma and the University of Maryland is important because of the “brilliance that the CMNS program brings in terms of computer science, and the medical and trauma expertise that can be discovered at Shock Trauma.”