As part of the continuing partnership between the Medical College of Georgia, the Biomedical Interactive Technology Center, and IMTC; the remote palpation project seeks to allow doctors to examine patients at a remote location using telecommunications, as well as documenting certain palpation properties of the patient. IMTC has developed and patented a haptic lens - a sensor that is capable of documenting a 3D surface under a specific pressure. The image below shows surface mapping of a key and finger using the device.
As the device is slowly pressed against an object (body part), 3D surfaces, deforming under the applied pressure, are recorded in real-time along with the instantaneous pressure. Using this data, a "hardness image" or compliance map can be assembled from individual 3D surfaces recorded at the different pressures. This helps in objectively documenting the minute differences between adjacent tissues' compliances (such as documenting a cyst on or near the surface). Preliminary PC-based software has been generated by Andrew Quay and Peter Presti of IMTC to be able to visualize the 3D surface in real-time, using a mouse to manipulate the viewing angle as well as the lighting.
Click on the thumbnail below for a larger view.
3-D surface visualization
| Attachment | Size |
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| SIGGRAPH '97 or Technical Sketch.pdf | 29.93 KB |