Akio Ikemoto

Simulator for virtual surgery using deformable organ models and force feedback system.

This paper describes a real-time surgery planning system using virtual reality techniques. This system allows us to simulate incision of skin and organs which respond as elastic objects with surgical tools in virtual space. Inner structures such as blood vessels and lesions can be seen and manipulated in the simulation. In addition to these functions we attempted to add a feedback function that responds to the operators hands. We developed a force feedback device to manipulate the elastic organ model based on pressure from the operators fingers.

Virtual Surgery System Using Deformable Organ Models and Force Feedback Systems with Three Fingers

We aimed to develop a virtual surgery system capable of performing surgical maneuvers on elastic organs, the structure of which has been obtained from a patient. We tried to manipulate three dimensional (3D) organs as elastic models by hand or surgical tools in real time in a virtual environment. And we tried to obtain the sense of touch by using force feedback device with manipulator attached to the thumb, forefinger and middle finger of the operator.

Virtual surgery simulator with force feedback function

The authors developed a surgery planning system using virtual reality techniques which allows them to simulate incision of skin and organs which respond as elastic objects with surgical tools in virtual space. The authors also attempted to add a feedback function that responds to the pressure of the operators hand using a force feedback device.