Critique 2: My MRI At Raigmore

The second app I am critiquing is My MRI At Raigmore for Android. There were few apps that I could critique and wanted one that I can try out myself without a Vive or Oculus. I had an MRI a while ago and wanted to see what the virtual representation of an MRI is like. This was originally presented by Almoujahed and the site can be found here.

I browsed Google Play Store and found it immediately. After downloading and installing the app it needed to download 125MB of videos. This didn’t take too terribly long. When it downloaded the videos and launched, the first thing I noticed was the intuitive menu. Click on the tablet or the Google Cardboard headset. I didn’t like that after I selected Cardboard it almost immediately asked for notification permissions, which I promptly denied.

I starts out with a child telling you he’s going for a scan and asks if you’ll go with him. Then I’m instructed to look at the circle to begin.

The child seems to have a British accent. I soon teleport to the MRI department. The first area/video Arriving At The Department shows a very short clip of a doctor handing a very fuzzy man some paperwork as he says something to him. It’s hard to understand what the doctor is saying.

The next area to go to is the Before Your Scan. The little British girl says that she can play here until it’s time and that a Radiographer is coming to get her to tell her about the scan. I look at the circle and the video plays. It turns out the fuzzy man is my dad. The Radiographer explains that I will need to change into other clothes, informs me that it will be very noisy, but I must lie still, and then tells me I can bring a CD into the MRI machine to listen to if I would like. Oh goodie!

Now we go to see the next area, Where The Radiographer Sits. The video plays and it shows the radiographer’s desk and he explains that when the machine isn’t making a loud banging noise he can talk to me and can hear what I say when I’m inside. Quick story, the last time I saw an MRI scanner I was working Security at Hinsdale Hospital and they received a new $1,000,000+ MRI machine and within a week it was destroyed. One night we were watching over this drunk guy who started freaking out and punching the machine, and because we weren’t allowed to be in there while it was actively scanning, when we got to him the machine was broken. The radiographer concludes the video by telling me we’re going to see the MRI machine.

The little girl at the menu says it’s like a tunnel with two open ends. I play the video. I am instructed on the parts of the machine that I will touch such as the buzzer to get the doctor’s attention, headphones for communication and music, and a helmet that will do the actual scanning. I am told that my dad can either sit next to me and he can touch my leg or I can look at him through the opposite end of the MRI machine. I seriously think my fake dad is incapable of showing emotion. His face never changes.

So in the next video I’m laying there represented by an obviously fake body as my dad stares creepily at me as I am loaded into the machine. I notice I’m wearing a I Stayed Still For My MRI sticker on my shirt. Then, wow. I totally forgot just how loud those machines actually are. My eardrums are blown as the machine scans me.