Crawling on the heart : a mobile robotic device for minimally invasive cardiac interventions p. 9 High dexterity snake-like robotic slaves for minimally invasive telesurgery of the upper airway p. 17 Development of a robotic laser surgical tool with an integrated video endoscope p. 25 Micro-neurosurgical system in the deep surgical field p. 33 Dense 3D depth recovery for soft tissue deformation...

Purpose – The following article is a “Q&A interview” conducted by Joanne Pransky of Industrial Robot journal as a method to impart the combined technological, business and personal experience of a prominent, robotic industry engineer-turned-entrepreneur regarding the evolution, commercialization and challenges of bringing a technological invention to market. The paper aims to discuss these issu...

Advanced Telerobotic Applications for Telemanipulation T his article focuses on the use of stereoscopic video interfaces for telerobotics. Topics concerning human visual perception, binocular image capturing, and stereoscopic devices are described. There is a wide variety of video interfaces for telerobotic systems [1]. Choosing the best video interface depends on the telerobotic application re...

The implementation of telemanipulator systems for cardiac surgery enabled heart surgeons to perform delicate minimally invasive procedures with high precision under stereoscopic view. At present, commercially available systems do not provide force-feedback or Cartesian control for the operating surgeon. The lack of haptic feedback may cause damage to tissue and can cause breaks of suture materi...

I n minimally invasive surgery (MIS), the surgeon works with long instruments through small incisions. These small incisions are the main advantage of MIS, leading to several benefits for the patient when compared with open surgery. These benefits include reduced pain and trauma, reduced loss of blood, reduced risk of wound infections, shorter hospital stays, shorter rehabilitation time, and co...

In this paper, we quantify several spatial capabilities of the hmnan tactile system needed for tactile feedback, or teletaction. Psychophysics experiments measure the amplitude resolution of the human tactile system, the effects of shear stress on grating orientation discrimination, and the effects of viscoelasticity {creep and relaxation) on tactile perception for static touch. The results are...

As the internet and other communication channels mature, many industries are looking at these mediums to not only display information but also to perform real time tasks such as remote vehicle control, remote tuning, interactive collaborations, etc. These tasks rely heavily on visual senses and the users ability to process information in a timely manner. As networked based applications become m...

Technical advancements have clearly brought about improvements to modern day minimally invasive surgery. This technology has continued to grow by leaps and bounds in all areas of laparoscopy including robotics. Historically, gynecologists have been early adopters and pioneers in the area robotic surgery with utilization of early robotic platforms such as AESOP and Zeus (both Computer Motion, Go...

Mobile games and graphics are popular because un-tethered computing is convenient and ubiquitous entertainment is compelling. However, rendering graphics on mobile devices faces challenges due to limited system resources, such as battery energy, and low memory and disk space. Real time frame rates, low energy consumption and high image quality are all desirable attributes of interactive mobile ...

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) create behavioral motor strategies by using external cues to facilitate their movements. Virtual reality (VR) could work as an external stimulus in order to explore the motor plans by means of creation of mental images. We tested 2 women with PD aged 68 and 69 years, and 10 normal control subjects. Patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment to eval...