BACKGROUND Haptic feedback has been proven to play a key role in enhancing the performance of teleoperated medical procedures. However, due to safety issues, commercially-available medical robots do not currently provide the clinician with haptic feedback. METHODS This work presents the experimental evaluation of a teleoperation system for robot-assisted medical procedures able to provide mag...

This paper investigates and compares the effectiveness of haptic and audio modality for navigation in low visibility environment using a sensory augmentation device. A second generation head-mounted vibrotactile interface as a sensory augmentation prototype was developed to help users to navigate in such environments. In our experiment, a subject navigates along a wall relying on the haptic or ...

Sound is touch at a distance. The vibration of pressure waves in the air creates sounds that our ears hear, at close range, these pressure waves may also be felt as vibration. This audio-haptic relationship has potential for enriching interaction in human-computer interfaces. How can interface designers manipulate attention using audio-haptic media? We propose a theoretical perceptual framework...

Current simulations of surgical procedures do not provide haptic feedback of cutting forces felt while using surgical scissors. We have designed and tested “haptic scissors,” an interface that can display forces to a user grasping Metzenbaum scissor handles. By filtering and scaling cutting data obtained in previous work, we have created haptic virtual environments that can simulate the cutting...

Usability has come to play an important role in interface design. Product usability focus on product ease of use first and foremost with consideration to users demographics, experience level and user requirements to serve the population efficiently. Virtual reality technologies provide novel and enhanced modes of human computer interaction that can be used as a potential tool to support product...

In this paper, we describe the design of the hardware and software for a virtual bronchoscope w'th force feedback. A haptic interface allows surgeons t o feel the reaction force of virtual pneumonic s u r g e y as i f they were touching the area directly. W e present novel algorithms fo r haptic force rendering, and examine i ts ability t o display force. The rendering algorithms have been inte...

Most haptic peripheral displays provide active feedback. We present BubbleWrap, which simulates different degrees of softness to display low notification levels as dynamic passive haptic feedback. When combined with active feedback, interface designers can easily control the level of notification to users. BubbleWrap consists of a matrix of electro-magnetic actuators, enclosed in fabric, with i...

We present a novel haptic-based simulator for training radiology residents and sonographers. The system consists of a force feedback haptic device that interacts in real-time with registered 3D multi-modality data sets of a subject anatomy, rendered and sliced simultaneously. The proposed system allows to develop radiology expertise with minimum practice on live patients, or in places or at tim...

This paper extends previous results on stable haptic and force feedback interaction in the presence of constant and varying time-delay. The proposed method evolved from our previous earlier work where we apply Smith prediction principle on delayed haptic feedback interaction. We will show that the proposed approach is easy to implement and it is original since it investigates another way to for...