Lump detection with a gelsight sensor

A GelSight sensor is a tactile sensing device comprising a clear elastomeric pad covered with a reflective membrane, coupled with optics to measure the membrane's deformations. When the pad is pressed against an object's surface, the membrane changes shape in accord with mechanical and geometrical properties of the object. Since soft tissue is more compliant than hard tissue, one can detect an embedded lump by pressing the GelSight pad against the tissue surface and observing the hump that forms over the lump. We tested this system's sensitivity by constructing phantoms of soft rubber with hard embedded lumps. The system is quite sensitive; for example it could detect a 2mm lump at a depth of 5mm. The sensor was more sensitive than previous tactile lump detectors. It was also better than human observers using their fingertips. Such a capability could help in tumor screening, and could augment the sensory information available in telemedicine or minimally invasive surgery.

[1]  Paolo Dario,et al.  Tactile sensing: Technology and applications , 1991 .

[2]  R. Woodham.  Gradient and curvature from the photometric-stereo method, including local confidence estimation , 1994 .

[3]  R. Woodham.  Gradient and Curvature from Photometric Stereo Including Local Condence Estimation , 1994 .

[4]  T. Krouskop,et al.  Elastic Moduli of Breast and Prostate Tissues under Compression , 1998, Ultrasonic imaging.

[5]  Nello Cristianini,et al.  An Introduction to Support Vector Machines and Other Kernel-based Learning Methods , 2000 .

[6]  Roger W. Brockett,et al.  Reconstructing the Shape of a Deformable Membrane from Image Data , 2000, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[7]  Maria Petrou,et al.  The 4-Source Photometric Stereo Technique for Three-Dimensional Surfaces in the Presence of Highlights and Shadows , 2003, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[8]  R. Reuben,et al.  Measurement of tissue mechanical characteristics to distinguish between benign and malignant prostatic disease. , 2005, Urology.

[9]  D. Rubens,et al.  Tissue elasticity properties as biomarkers for prostate cancer. , 2008, Cancer biomarkers : section A of Disease markers.

[10]  E. Adelson,et al.  Retrographic sensing for the measurement of surface texture and shape , 2009, 2009 IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[11]  L. Eberman,et al.  Enhancing Clinical Evaluation Skills: Palpation as the Principal Skill , 2010 .

[12]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Human vs. robotic tactile sensing: Detecting lumps in soft tissue , 2010, 2010 IEEE Haptics Symposium.

[13]  Edward H. Adelson,et al.  Microgeometry capture using an elastomeric sensor , 2011, SIGGRAPH 2011.