Anatomy education is essential to support medical students in understanding the morphology, location, and spatial relationships of anatomical structures. Virtual reality (VR) and interactive 3D visualization systems have been proposed to provide an engaging learning experience and environment. However, VR-based systems integrated with a generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for anatomy education are still underrepresented. This work presents a VR environment with a generative AI virtual assistant to support human anatomy education, allowing the user to communicate verbally with the virtual assistant. We aim to provide a more interactive, adaptive, and informative learning experience. The proposed environment was assessed in a pilot user study (n = 16) with a comparison of two configurations: avatar and screen-based virtual assistant. We observed no significant difference between the configurations and difficulty level in the task completion time and the number of interactions with the virtual assistant. However, there was a significant difference in the score between the difficulty level in the avatar configuration. The results also provide insights into the usability, task load, and sense of presence in the virtual environment. Our proposed environment offers potential benefits and research directions for medical education, using generative AI to assist and enhance the learning experience.

翻译：解剖学教育对于医学生理解解剖结构的形态、位置及空间关系至关重要。虚拟现实（VR）与交互式三维可视化系统已被提出用于营造沉浸式学习体验与环境。然而，集成生成式人工智能（AI）助手的VR交互系统在解剖学教育领域的应用仍较为薄弱。本研究提出一个配备生成式AI虚拟助手的VR环境以支持人体解剖学教学，允许用户与虚拟助手进行语音交流，旨在提供更具交互性、适应性与信息性的学习体验。通过试点用户研究（n=16），我们对两种配置方案（虚拟化身与屏幕型虚拟助手）进行了对比评估。研究发现，两种配置在任务完成时间及与虚拟助手的交互次数方面无显著差异，但虚拟化身配置中不同难度等级的用户评分存在显著差异。实验结果还揭示了虚拟环境中的可用性、任务负荷及临场感特征。本研究所提出的环境为医学教育提供了潜在价值与研究方向，通过生成式AI辅助并增强学习体验。