Gaming tech reaches operating room

The medical community is finding some valuable new uses for video gaming technology, says abc13.com.

The 3D glasses and video game controllers are among the new tools helping surgeons in the operating room. Science 'fiction' has become science 'fact' at Methodist Hospital, where doctors are using 3D technology to view the human body like never before.

"This is like a completely new frontier," said chairman Dr Brian Butler with Methodist Hospital Radiation Oncology Department. A new frontier where doctors visualise or "travel" under the skin - through bones, muscle and blood vessels - to the exact location requiring medical attention. It gives them the ability to "preview" a procedure before they actually go into the operating room.

The video games industry is one of the last media sectors to face disruption from the Internet. But led by companies such as Playfish and Zynga, Internet-based 'social' gaming is now redefining how games are produced and distributed, writes Financial Times.

Unlike the traditional gaming market, where shelf space at games retailers is dominated by proven hits, franchises and sequels, the most popular games played on Facebook and other social networks are all made by companies with "new DNA", says Sebastien de Halleux, Playfish's COO and co-founder.

"There is a massive long tail of Facebook applications, but the concentration of usage is in a handful of companies," he says.

Shanda Interactive Entertainment, a Chinese technology company, is planning to spin off its video game unit and raise as much as $800 million in an initial public offering in the US on Nasdaq, according to New York Times.

The unit, Shanda Games Limited, has produced popular Chinese video games like the World of Legend and Aion, a multiplayer online role-playing game.

The filing comes a few months after the Chinese Internet portal Sohu.com unit took its own gaming unit, Changyou.com, public on Nasdaq.