Objectives

• Learning complex surgical tasks requires that novice surgeons collaborate with expert surgeons and a surgical team
• To collaborate efficiently, these partners must construct a Common Frame-of-Reference (CFR)
• The CFR is a representation of the shared situation, which is updated continuously by an information exchange between the learner and the team
• The main goal of this project is to explore how to learn complex surgical tasks using proxy haptics

Haptic Perception Problem

• In traditional Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) participants are represented as avatars that are continuously updated using 3D tracking technologies
• In most systems, collaborative manipulations are very limited and complicated which limits the applicability of CVE for numerous training applications
• Manipulating virtual objects with appropriate passive haptic cues could provide an enhanced sense of presence in the virtual world making the simulation feel real
• Solving this haptic problem will revolutionize CVE by adding touch perception to any type of training applications

Proxy Haptic Concept

• One method for adding a sense of touch to virtual objects is to use the concept of proxy haptics, where real physical props are placed around the real environment to match their virtual counterparts
• If the physical props are co-registered with the virtual objects a compelling sense of tactile sensation can be achieved, for example, how a mannequin can be used to represent a virtual patient
• If the mannequin is co-registered in 3D relative to the virtual user locations, one can be convinced that they are touching a real patient, especially if the tools are tracked in 3D

Research Objectives

• Study the optimal conditions to create this haptic illusion
• Explore how to leverage the dominance of vision when our senses are in conflict to use a limited number of physical props to provide a passive haptic sensation for a variety of virtual world objects
• Evaluate effectiveness of proxy haptic for surgical training