Realistic force feedback for virtual reality based diagnostic surgery simulators

Abstract

Virtual reality surgery simulators are almost certainly the future of endoscopic surgery trainers. While many aspects of such systems, such as the visualization of the operating scene, have been brought to satisfactory levels of resemblance to real endoscopic surgery, the haptic feedback simulation is one of the major obstacles remaining. The aim of this work is to describe the main components necessary for a realistic haptic feedback in surgery, concentrating on the modelling of soft organic tissue, necessary for the simulation of soft tissue deformation. We also present a method to measure in-vivo the material parameters figuring in the developed elastomechanical models of living tissues.