From: jojo@well.sf.ca.us (Johannes Nicholas Johannsen)
Subject: CONF REPORT: Medicine Meets VR, June 1992
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1992 06:03:27 GMT



Crossposted from the WELL (192.132.30.2), well.sf.ca.us, vr conference:


Topic  66:  Medical Applications of VR
# 37: Johannes Nicholas Johannsen (jojo)      Thu, Jun 18, '92  (17:40)      72
lines
 
 Medicine Meets VR was a very information-intense conference, so its kind
 of surprising there isn't much posted about it.
 
 There were lots of doctors, about 150, plus 50 various flakes like myself,
 plus 50 presenting information to the crowd.  The information varied from
 gross-out medical school films to obscure VR technologies to things only
 vaguely related to VR and medicine.  There were lots of technology (medical
 and VR) overviews, and what seemed like hundreds of "definitions" of VR.
 
 One of the unofficial themes was the borderland between VR and telepresense.
 Jaron described VPL's borderland project with a Japanese construction company
 (the latest Cyberedge describes it pretty well) where when the dust clouds
 get too thick, VR takes over so the telepresence operator can keep working.
 Jaron pointed out this is much simpler than surgery, given the size and
 stability of buildings, plus the zillion VR architecture demos that exist.
 
 Lots of the doctors went on the same theme about how great the existing
 imaging technologies are for planning operations, but how the images are
 out of date once an operation begins.  The solutions to this seemed to
 be real time imaging, near real time imaging, and a more sophisticated
 software approach which uses real time (ultrasound) imaging and correlates
 the deformation with a precalculated MRI, simulating a real time MRI.
 
 Telepresense operations are becoming very popular, but even though they
 are much better for the patient, they are much harder for the doctor.  The
 doctors want force feedback, sound, and more natural controls over the
 instruments.  The SRI project seemed to address this, except for the fact
 they weren't using the same instruments -- the endoscopic operation tools
 are controlled through a small hole in the patient which acts as a fulcrum,
 forcing some non-intuitive motions and limitations on the surgeon.
 
 Since there were 50 presentations, its impossible to mention them all, but
 here are a few:
 
 Fuchs from UNC gave an entertaining presention on the history and state of
 VR, and gave the first of the 25 different definitions of VR.  His definition
 seemed to imply that the computation power required by VR could only be
 provided by monster one-of-a-kind computers made at, what a coincidence!, UNC.
 
 Lusted from Biocontrol Systems described two products based on technology
 that measures eye movement, muscle tension, and brain activity.  The medical
 product I didn't understand, but the PC one lets you control a computer by
 moving your eyes and making funny faces.  It costs $400 and is coming out in
 the fall.  He showed a video tape of a guy playing a computer shoot-em-up game
 by just looking at the screen.
 
 Paul of Integrated Surgical Systems in Sacramento has a system which does
 great
 hip replacement operations.  You can have your bone carved out by his nice
 little precision robot operated drill, or let a surgeon do it with a hammer
 and chisel.  Currently only dogs have the precision machine option.  Woof.
 
 An eye surgeon brought some realy back into the conference by saying
 microscopes are much better than electronics for his work, but he does need
 micromanipulators that correct for human dexterity errors in extremely
 delicate operations like retina surgery.  His suggestions were to scale force
 and velocity to correct under/over shooting, tremor, jerkiness and
 inappropriate force.
 
 Dave Warner had a unique perspective in attempting to make patients actually
 feel better with technology, with actual examples.  The video clips showed
 the glove talker for a stroke patient who couldn't talk otherwise, the eye
 controlling a computer for a paralyzed girl, manipulating virtual objects on
 a screen for helping the patient focus on a physical task, and an animated
 figure complete with facial expressions controlled by an actor
 used to cheer up kids in the hospital.
 
 One unoffical part of the conference I found interesting was the lunch time
 conversation, which revealed that doctors are forced to deal with
 extremely obscure economic and technology issues forced on them by
 insurance companies
 and lawyers.  Even when a great new product comes along, doctor or patient