Communication in a networked haptic virtual environment for temporal bone surgery training

Networked virtual environments using haptic interfaces can be used for surgical training and support both a simulation component and a communication component. We present such an environment for training in surgery of the temporal bone, which emphasises communication between an instructor and a student. We give an overview of the learning requirements for surgeons in this area and present the details of our implementation with a focus on the way communication is supported. We describe a training trial that was undertaken with a group of surgical trainees and carry out a qualitative analysis of transcripts from the teaching sessions. We conclude that the virtual environment supports a rich dialogue between the instructor and student, allowing them to ground their conversation in the shared model. Haptic interfaces are an important enabling technology for the simulation and communication and are used in conjunction with other modes and media to support situated learning.

[1]  William J. Schroeder,et al.  The Visualization Toolkit , 2005, The Visualization Handbook.

[2]  Manuel Menezes de Oliveira Neto,et al.  Transatlantic Touch: A Study of Haptic Collaboration over Long Distance , 2004, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[3]  Jack McLaughlin,et al.  Haptic Workbench: a multisensory virtual environment , 1999, Electronic Imaging.

[4]  Karl Heinz Höhne,et al.  Haptic volume interaction with anatomic models at sub-voxel resolution , 2002, Proceedings 10th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. HAPTICS 2002.

[5]  Karl Heinz Höhne,et al.  Haptic Rendering of Volumetric Anatomic Models at Sub-voxel Resolution , 2001 .

[6]  Matthew Hutchins,et al.  Surgical training using haptics over long internet distances. , 2004, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[7]  Alexander Krumpholz.  Building a Virtual Trainer for an Immersive Haptic Virtual Reality Environment , 2007 .

[8]  Matthew Hutchins,et al.  The Design of Perceptual Representations for Practical Networked Multimodal Virtual Training Environments , 2005 .

[9]  Herbert H. Clark,et al.  Grounding in communication , 1991, Perspectives on socially shared cognition.

[10]  R. Satava,et al.  Virtual Reality Training Improves Operating Room Performance: Results of a Randomized, Double-Blinded Study , 2002, Annals of surgery.

[11]  J. Chatwin.  Conversation analysis. , 2004, Complementary therapies in medicine.

[12]  Christina Vasilakis,et al.  Multi-perspective collaborative design in persistent networked virtual environments , 1996, Proceedings of the IEEE 1996 Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium.

[13]  Andrea Giachetti,et al.  Real-Time Haptic and Visual Simulation of Bone Dissection , 2002, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[14]  Ray Evenhouse,et al.  The virtual temporal bone, a tele-immersive educational environment , 1998, Future Gener. Comput. Syst..

[15]  Stephanie D. Teasley,et al.  Perspectives on socially shared cognition , 1991 .

[16]  Kimerly Powell,et al.  Temporal bone dissection simulation--an update. , 2002, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[17]  D Stredney,et al.  Virtual temporal bone dissection simulation. , 2000, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[18]  Matt Adcock,et al.  Trans-world haptic collaboration , 2003, SIGGRAPH '03.

[19]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  A Collaborative Virtual Environment for the Simulation of Temporal Bone Surgery , 2004, MICCAI.