Hand Tracking System for Minimally Invasive Surgical Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current minimally invasive surgical systems lack effective control mechanisms that utilize hand movement and gestures to control surgical instruments accurately and efficiently, particularly in sterile environments where traditional foot pedals and switches are cumbersome and non-intuitive.
Innovation Solution
A hand tracking system that uses sensors mounted on a surgeon's hand to track locations and orientations, generating system control parameters for controlling teleoperated surgical instruments, including grip closure and motion control, allowing for intuitive control through hand gestures and positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional foot pedals and switches are used for controlling surgical instruments, then the control mechanism is simple and reliable, but the ease of operation deteriorates and the risk of contamination increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical foot pedals and switches with a hand tracking system that uses optical sensors and computer vision algorithms to detect hand gestures and positions. This substitution eliminates the need for physical contact controls, improving ease of operation while maintaining system reliability through software-based gesture recognition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary hand tracking system that captures hand movements through optical sensors and translates them into control commands. This intermediary layer between the surgeon's intent and the surgical instrument control enables more intuitive operation without direct mechanical interaction, reducing contamination risk while preserving control precision.
2Reliability
If hand tracking system is implemented, then the ease of operation improves and contamination risk reduces, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical control interfaces with an optical hand tracking system, improving reliability by eliminating mechanical wear and contamination risks. The optical sensors and gesture recognition algorithms provide a more reliable control mechanism that is not subject to mechanical failure modes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the surgeon's hand movements through digital tracking and simulation. The hand tracking system captures real hand positions and gestures, creates digital representations, and uses these copies to control surgical instruments. This copying approach improves reliability by decoupling the control input from physical contact while maintaining faithful reproduction of surgeon intent.
3Measurement precision
If sensors are mounted on surgeon's hand, then the measurement precision of hand position and orientation improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses optical sensors to capture images of the surgeon's hand and creates digital models of hand position and orientation. By tracking fiducial markers or natural hand features in video feeds, the system achieves high measurement precision without requiring complex sensor mounting on the hand itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an optical intermediary system that captures hand movements through imaging sensors rather than direct contact sensors. This intermediary optical measurement approach achieves high precision in tracking hand position and orientation while avoiding the complexity of mounting multiple sensors directly on the surgeon's hand.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2D
Figure 2E~2G
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.