The Virtual Haptic Back Project

This paper discusses the Ohio University Virtual Haptic Back (VHB) project, including motivation, implementation, and initial evaluations. Haptics is the science of human tactile sensation and a haptic interface provides force and touch feedback to the user from virtual reality. The VHB combines high-fidelity computer graphics with haptic feedback to augment training in palpatory diagnosis in Osteopathic medicine, plus related training applications in physical therapy, massage therapy, and other tactile fields. We use the PHANToM haptic interface to provide position interactions by the trainee, with accompanying force feedback to simulate the back of a live human subject in real-time. Our simulation is intended to add a measurable, repeatable component of science to the art of palpatory diagnosis. Based on our experiences in the lab to date, we believe that haptics-augmented computer models have great potential for improving training in the future, for various tactile applications. Our main project goals are to: 1. Provide a novel tool for palpatory diagnosis training; and 2. Improve the stateof-the-art in haptics and graphics applied to virtual anatomy.