Researchers add eye control to Da Vinci robosurgeon

Eye-controlled interfaces are far from revolutionary, but giving one of the world's most famous robotic surgeons the ability to interpret eye movements is most definitely a huge leap forward in the pursuit of making operations less invasive. Reportedly, British researchers have implemented new software into the Da Vinci robosurgeon in order to enable human surgeons to "sit at a viewing console directing the movement of the robot's mechanical arms inside the patient's body." Additionally, the program can track eye movements and "build up a 3D map of the area of tissue the surgeon is looking at," and it seems as if the developments could eventually be used on a variety of other ER-based robots. Just make sure your doctor chugs a couple of Red Bulls before putting you under -- wouldn't want those eyes wandering aimlessly, now would we? (Psst, "no-go zones" are included, thankfully.)

[Via Slashdot]

[George @ Mar 23rd 2008 6:19AM]

sweet, sounds like trauma center. if you could use the wiimote and nunchuck on this thing i would totally become a doctor.

[IndiaTech @ Mar 23rd 2008 6:22AM]

That means no more winks or stares in the OT, I guess...

[Loren @ Mar 23rd 2008 7:08AM]

From the wording, I would assume that movements of the eye could control (pan) the viewing area, which would make for an intuitive interface.

I doubt that the device would make incisions etc. based upon eye movements. The surgeon's hands probably control a haptic input device similar to a slave device for

[Clockwork @ Mar 23rd 2008 6:44AM]

im pretty sure that his eyes dont control the incision, otherwise he might have to look away for a second, and things could to terribly wrong....

[Loren @ Mar 23rd 2008 7:09AM]

...a slave device (robotic arm) for processing radioactive material.

oops

So: eye movement tracking to see more area, while hands do the remote surgery

[Ameen @ Mar 23rd 2008 7:29AM]

*Da Vinci rolls in his grave..*

Seriously!, Whats' up with the fad of naming bots with great people's names?

[Bobs @ Mar 23rd 2008 8:51AM]

Has anyone figured out what the hell a davinci chip does?

[Daniel @ Mar 23rd 2008 12:55PM]

A DaVinci chip is a Digital Signal Processor from Texas Instruments.

[Tyler @ Mar 23rd 2008 9:05AM]

Actually, given da Vinci's stance on technology and the human body, he'd probably be into having something like this named after him.

[Ameen @ Mar 23rd 2008 10:37AM]

I mean you're not actually getting my point.. I guess you know Honda's Asimo is actually named after Issac Asimov, and this thing follows suit.. This naming convention if followed a lot may lead to some blogger bot named "Ryan Block ver.1"..

[Ameen @ Mar 23rd 2008 10:39AM]

And that bot will be auto-programmed to embed ads from classmates.com in real-time..

*Shakes his fist at the three horrible looking women*

[JACOB @ Mar 23rd 2008 9:12AM]

my friends dad works in a hospital with this

[Anthony @ Mar 23rd 2008 1:24PM]

>> ...it helps when you read for content and .then. summarize.

[Steven K @ Mar 23rd 2008 10:33PM]

Our hospital features this too. Used in many prostatectomies.

[KazSur @ Mar 24th 2008 8:53AM]

Good idea.. making the controls a little more intuitive,... Want the surgeons to be concentrating more on the patient than the robotic interface..

[Kenta @ Mar 25th 2008 8:03AM]

I am for one working as a researcher in this field in Germany. I have to say that I have some good reasons why robot surgery should be intensively developed.

Putting this robot aside for a moment and think of its structure. It comprises with the robot kinematic itself, human interface allowing human to command the robot from distance, these two are connected via communication channel. This technology can be called as "Telepresence and Teleaction". This technology is not useful in term of medical treatment when the doctor can not reach the patient directly, but also allow human to work in seriously dangerous situations, e.g. Nuclear power plant maintainace.

The key idea is not limited to the medical application. As telepresence and teleaction, or some called haptic telepresence, try to eliminate the limitation of presence of human in curtain area, which in reality they can not. Using this idea and technique, applications are developed far more than just a robot application, such as virtual reality through internet becomes more real. The new person identifying methods are developed and allow electronically prove of your signature through data-based. Or, as I am working, a service robot which is due to work at ISS (International Space Station) as a medical robot and precision hands to handle an experiment by human at the earth station. If you really like to understand this technique more, just let me know. I am more than happy to support informations.

More info can be read here http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~t8241ad/webserver/webdata/ they are written both in English and German.