June 22, 2008

GETZVILLE, NY – V-Frog, the world’s first virtual-reality based frog dissection software designed for biology education, is now available for home use. V-Frog is developed and marketed by Tactus Technologies of Getzville, N.Y. Home edition  is available through Amazon.com. The newly launched home edition has already been sold to customers in US, Canada, Finland, Japan and India.

            James Mayrose, Ph.D. CEO of Tactus Technologies pointed out the there are over 1.3 Million home schooled students who could benefit from the home edition version of V-Frog in the US alone. Currently home schoolers get very few opportunities to perform an actual dissection. This virtual reality dissection product will be of great benefit to them. “We have introduced this version specifically to address the needs of this group of science students” he added.

            “Other products out there are multi-media based and, not true virtual reality,” explains Kevin P. Chugh, Ph.D., Chief Scientist at Tactus Technologies. The V-Frog home edition, which operates on a personal computer using a standard mouse, actually simulates nearly unlimited manipulation of specimen tissue. As a result, every dissection is different, reflecting each student’s individual work. The software is designed for grades 7 through 12, plus advanced placement biology students.

            Using a simple mouse and PC, students can “pick up” a scalpel, cut open V-Frog’s skin, and explore the internal organs – with true real-time interaction and 3-D navigation that actually accommodates discovery and procedures not possible with a physical frog specimen.

            “You can go through the entire alimentary canal, using the endoscopic function – something you could never do with a real frog,” says Chugh. “Likewise, with our patent pending V-Frog, you can explore nerves and blood vessels, and look closely at how the brain is wired. Students would never get the opportunity to see and work with these things this way with a real frog.” In addition, V-Frog allows students to watch a beating heart, observe digestion, dissect, probe, and perform endoscopic procedures.

            Tactus Technologies, a provider of virtual reality, visualization and simulation products and services – a spin-off of the Virtual Reality Laboratory at the State University of New York at Buffalo – received a Small Business development grant from the Institute of Educational Services, a division of the U.S. Dept. of Education.

            Others involved in research and development of V-Frog – which drew upon some 120 sources in its overall production – include Kesh Kesavadas, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer and James Lalley, Ph.D , Director of Educational Products.

            In addition to the home edition V-Frog is being sold directly to individual schools, museums and zoos under a one-time building licensing fee. Additional information is available at www.vfrog.net, or by calling (716) 206-8463.

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Opening the Mouth


Cutting the Skin


Opening the Cut Skin


Removing Organs


Endoscoping GI Tract