A Week at the MICCAI Conference

I was in the UK last week where the Imperial College of London was hosting the 12^th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI 2009). This is where clinicians, computer scientists , bioscientists, , engineers, and other researchers gather every year to share their innovations in the field of medical robotics, medical image processing and computer assisted intervention. Beside the major focus on advances of image acquisition and computation at the MICCAI conference, robotic assisted surgery has attracted huge attention in the recent years. Robots can provide the surgeons with unprecedented precision, dexterity, and minimally invasive techniques. They can increase the quality of the operation while reducing the time of the operation and patient recovery. Image information from a wide range of sensor data can be integrated into such systems to equip the surgeon with enhanced vision capabilities and feedback system.

From Left : Professor Guang-Zhong Yang (Imperial College), Amin Abdossalami (Quanser), Keith Blanchet(Quanser).

Quanser’s great expertise in haptics and teleoperation has resulted in the design and development of such well-known general purpose robotic manipulators as High Definition Haptic Device HD2 and Haptic Wand. At MICCAI 2009, Quanser was invited to present its latest haptic devices, the HD2. This system has a high accuracy position measurement and a relatively large workspace. It can provide the operator with precise force feedbacks ranging from the reaction force of a brain tissue to the stiffness of a tooth. In addition, the device end-effector can be easily modified for a versatile range of applications. All these characteristics make the HD2 capable enough to be used for such applications as virtual training simulators, collaborative haptics, rehabilitation, or it can even act as either a master or slave robot in a telesurgery setup. Using our real-time software QuaRC we designed some surgical simulations to demonstrate the capabilities of our HD2 and its programming software. Quanser’s HD2 along with its real-time software QuaRC and our other booth material attracted a lot of interest from both clinicians and engineers during the MICCAI conference.

Quanser Booth in MICCAI 2009

Below, our blog followers can read about some presentations from other companies participating in the exhibition.

One of the FDA approved systems which is extensively being used for robotic surgery is the da Vinci made by Intuitive. In the following video a second generation of the da Vinci systems with three surgical arms is presented.

SenseGraphics was another exhibiting company in the MICCAI. Below, you can see their presentation of their 3D display setup.

In the following video Dr. Rodriguez from Imperial College is presenting part of their fascinating research in the field of developing new brain probes.

In the following video you can see some interesting 3D spatial tracking systems developed by NDI.

And last but not least are some cool products from INITION in the field of 3D displays.