Seminar 2007 02 07 Realistic Haptic Interactions

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CISST ERC Seminar
Realistic Haptic Interactions

Date: Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Time: 12:00pm
Place: NEB 12 - NEW LOCATION! (Lunch will be served)

Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Fiene
Title: Toward Realistic Haptic Interactions with Virtual Rigid Objects
Presentation: PDF, not yet uploaded

Abstract

Many tasks in medical diagnosis and treatment require the doctor to use his or her sense of touch to make fine judgments about the material properties of various tissues and structures. As training physicians to perform these tasks on live patients alone is costly and risky, significant interest has recently emerged in the area of high-fidelity simulation of such procedures. One of the most challenging aspects of creating a compelling virtual environment for training of manual tasks is the need to provide realistic force feedback to the operator. Most present systems disregard the low- level dynamics of the haptic interface and rely on simple, quasi- static algorithms for the determination of feedback forces; however, these design choices limit the displayable stiffness to well below the level necessary for training of delicate discrimination and manipulation tasks. As such, the first component of the presentation focuses on the electromechanical dynamics of existing haptic devices, which use small DC motors to apply forces to the user's hand through a mechanical linkage, while the second main element of the talk explores event-based algorithms for haptic feedback, wherein open-loop, high-frequency force transients are displayed to the user at the moment of virtual contact to create the impression of rigidity.

Bio

Jonathan Fiene works as a postdoctoral research fellow with Dr. Gabor Fichtinger in the Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology at Johns Hopkins University. He recently received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. While working in the Telerobotics Lab at Stanford University under the advisement of Professor G�nter Niemeyer, he also received his M.S. degree in 2003, specializing in mechatronics and design. He completed his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, graduating as the top engineering student in the class of 2001. Following the completion of his postdoc, Jonathan plans to become a full-time lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics department at the University of Pennsylvania.