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Abstract

A system for producing highly realistic, real-time simulated operating condition for interactive training of persons to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures involving implements that are inserted and manipulated through small incisions in the patient. The virtual environment for this training system includes a housing with small opening. An implement simulating a surgical implement is inserted into the opening and manipulated relative to the housing. A movement guide and sensor assembly monitors the location of the implement relative to the housing and provides data about the implement's location and orientation within the housing. The reported data is interpolated by a computer processor, which utilizes a database of information representing a patient's internal landscape to create a computer model of the internal landscape of the patient. With reference to this computer model, the processor controls the occurrence of force feedback opposing the motion of the implement. A two-dimensional image representing the implement as it would appear within the patient is generated by a processor-controlled video imaging system based on the computer model of the patient's internal landscape. This computer image of the implement is then merged with a video image loop of a patient's internal landscape as it appears through a heartbeat and breathing cycle, and the merged image is displayed on a video display. The combined elements of real-time visual representation and interactive tactile force feedback provide a virtual training simulation with all elements of actual operation conditions, minus a live patient.

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