1 research outputs found
Investigating the Feasibility of Using Focussed Airborne Ultrasound as Tactile Feedback in Medical Simulators
Novice medical practitioners commonly practice on live patients in real medical
procedures. However, due to the inexperience of the practitioner, mistakes
are likely which exposes the patient to undue risk. To improve the training of
novices, medical simulators create a virtual patient providing a safe environment
for the user to practice within. An important clinical skill is palpation, a
physical examination technique. The practitioners use their hands to feel the
body of the patient to make diagnosis. A virtual patient has a visual representation
but as it is virtual, the patient is not physically present. Haptics technology
provide additional benefits to the training session by stimulating the physical
sense of touch. A novel technique has recently emerged for stimulating tactile
sensation called acoustic radiation pressure from focussed airborne ultrasound.
Acoustic radiation creates a focal point of concentrated acoustic pressure in a
three-dimensional field producing a force in mid-air. Airborne ultrasound has
several advantages over conventional technologies. It was also initially theorised
that using airborne ultrasound to simulate palpation compared to a previous
system called PalpSim which consists of a rubber tube filled with water
permanently embedded in a block of silicone, will offer better controllability
over the displayed sensation to simulate various tactile sensations.
The thesis has investigated the feasibility of using focussed airborne ultrasound
as tactile feedback in medical simulators. A tactile device called UltraSendo
was completely custom built to simulate an arterial pulse and a thrill sensation.
UltraSendo was integrated with an augmented reality simulator displaying a
virtual patient for user interaction. The simulator was brought to Ysbyty Glan
Clwyd hospital for user feedback. A wide range of user responses were gathered.
The majority of responses felt the arterial pulse was not sufficiently realistic
whilst there were higher ratings for the thrill sensation which is acceptably
realistic. Positive feedback suggests that airborne ultrasound can indeed provide
tactile feedback in a medical context and is better at simulating a thrill
sensation compared to a pulse sensation