Human Computer Hybrid Surgical System

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is a surgicaltechnique involving small incisions performed by anendoscope and several long thin instruments. MISminimizes complications and speeds up recovery timecompared to the traditional surgery. Unfortunatelyfrom a surgeon's perspective MIS is much morechallenging than conventional open surgery because ofthe limited vision and sensing feedbacks. In the last decade we have witnessed dramaticincreases in performance of computerized assistedsystem achieved through increasing computationalcapabilities and advances in sensor designs. Theobjective of this research is to design and realize anovel prototype that advances the state of the art insurgical training assessment and guidance for MIS.The proposed Situational Awareness Enhancing System(SAES) uses a unified framework incorporatingperception comprehension and projection softwaremodules that provide feedback during the exercisesand enable evaluation of the training procedure. Thelow cost solution would permit our system to not onlymeasure a trainee's progress in acquiring psychomotorskills but also to evaluate instrument effectivenessin reducing error.