Millersville University Research in Surgical Simulation

Millersville University's Research in Haptics and Surgical Simulation
A Joint Research Project in Surgical Simulation with the
Penn State University College of Medicine

Research Projects

Capsulorhexis Simulator

3D Deformable Organs

Endoscope Simulator

Suturing Simulator

Lumbar Puncture Simulator

LaparoscopicCholecystectomy

MU Haptics Demos

Hand Tracking

Roger Webster, Ph.D.¹, Randy Haluck, M.D.², Joseph Sassani, M.D.³,
Matt Harris¹, John McCaw ¹, Chad Billman ¹, Jesse Gerber¹,

¹Dept. of Computer Science
3D Graphics Laboratory
School of Science and Mathematics

Caputo Hall
D&E Communications Wing

Millersville University
Millersville, PA. USA 17551

²Dept. of Minimally Invasive Surgery
³Dept. of Ophthalmology
Penn State University
College of Medicine
Hershey Medical Center
Hershey, PA. USA 17033

The goal of this joint research is to develop software for use in simulating a suite of surgical procedures. Medical students and surgeons will be able to test their skills using a virtual reality surgical simulator that provides sensitive touch feedback along with realistic 3D imagery. Our simulators use devices such as: the EYESI™ eye simulator, Immersion Virtual Laparoscopic Interface, the Immersion Laparoscopic Surgical Workstation™ haptic device, and the Sensable Technologies' PHANToM™ haptic device. The graphics programming environment is MUopenGL toolkit - an object oriented API that calls OpenGL™. The haptics environment is Sensable Technologies' GHOST API calls. The control computer is a dual Pentium processor workstation with an Nvidia™ OpenGL graphics accelerator running Windows XP™.

These research projects were funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation under grant numbers EIA0116616, DUE-9950742 and DUE-9651237, and a Penn State University College of Medicine Department of Surgery and Department of Ophthalmology Grants, the Neimeyer-Hodgson Grants Program, the Willard O. and Dr. Katherine Gibson-Havameier Endowment for Computer Science, and by the Faculty Grants Committee and the Noonan fund of Millersville University.

Previous contributors to this research: Rodney Shenk, John Blumenstock, Jeremy Shopf, Matt Harris, Jack Hindes, Shanna Sampson, Nathan Good, Aaron Benson, Nathan Charles, Jon Reeser, Joshua Boyd, David DeSanto, Dan Sherman, Sean Darrenkamp, Steve Terlecki, Betty Mohler, Mike Melkonian, M.D., Alan Synder, Ph.D., W. Bosseau Murray, M.D., Jeremy Sheaffer, Tyson Frack, Eric Crouthamel, Tim Bailey, Mike Dise, Dr. Paul Gorman, Dr. Thomas Krummel, Monica Smith, Dr. Will Wang, Dean Zimmerman.

Click for Computer Graphics World article on Virtual Surgery

Click for a list of useful haptics/vr/medical simulator links