Hand-Tracking Interface for Teleoperated Minimally Invasive Surgery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current minimally invasive surgical systems lack effective hand tracking and gesture recognition technologies, leading to inefficient control and presence detection, which hinders precise surgical operations and user interface management.
Innovation Solution
A hand tracking system that uses sensor elements mounted on a surgeon's hand to generate control parameters for controlling teleoperated surgical instruments, including grip closure and orientation, based on hand gestures and positions, allowing for precise control and intuitive operation of surgical instruments and user interfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If foot pedals and switches are used to control surgical instruments, then the surgical system can be operated, but the surgeon experiences distractions and loses valuable workspace
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical foot pedals and switches with a hand tracking system that uses optical sensors and computer vision to detect hand gestures. This substitution eliminates the need for physical control mechanisms, reducing workspace clutter and surgeon distraction while maintaining full control capability over surgical instruments
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy of the surgeon's hand movements through sensor data and processes them as control commands. The hand tracking system captures the position and orientation of the surgeon's hand and translates these gestures into corresponding instrument movements, providing an intuitive control interface without physical intermediaries
2Adaptability or versatility
If hand tracking sensors are mounted on the surgeon's hand, then gesture-based control is enabled, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hand tracking system serves multiple functions: it tracks hand position, recognizes gestures, determines orientation, and provides haptic feedback. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require separate systems into a single integrated solution, managing complexity while enhancing versatility
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a processing system that acts as an intermediary between the simple hand sensors and the complex surgical instrument controls. This intermediary layer handles gesture recognition, coordinate transformations, and command generation, shielding the surgeon from system complexity while enabling sophisticated control capabilities
3Measurement precision
If sensor elements are used to track hand position and orientation, then control precision is improved, but the measurement and tracking difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates haptic feedback that provides real-time tactile information to the surgeon about instrument position and interaction forces. This feedback loop helps the surgeon interpret sensor data more easily, reducing the perceived complexity of precise hand tracking while maintaining high measurement accuracy
Solution Approach 2:
The hand tracking system divides the complex task of hand analysis into separate measurable components: finger tip positions, hand orientation, and gesture patterns. Each component is tracked independently by sensor elements, and the results are integrated to provide comprehensive control data, making the overall system more manageable
Data Source
AI summary
In a minimally invasive surgical system, a hand tracking system tracks a location of a sensor element mounted on part of a human hand. A system control parameter is generated based on the location of the part of the human hand. Operation of the minimally invasive surgical system is controlled using the system control parameter. Thus, the minimally invasive surgical system includes a hand tracking system. The hand tracking system tracks a location of part of a human hand. A controller coupled to the hand tracking system converts the location to a system control parameter, and injects into the minimally invasive surgical system a command based on the system control parameter.