Adaptive techniques for real–time haptic and visual simulation of bone dissection

Abstract

Bone dissection is an important component of many surgical procedures. In this paper we discuss adaptive techniques for providing real-time haptic and visual feedback during a virtual bone dissection simulation. The simulator is being developed as a component of a training system for temporal bone surgery. We harness the difference in complexity and frequency requirements of the visual and haptic simulations by modeling the system as a collection of loosely coupled concurrent components. The haptic component exploits a multi-resolution representation of the first two moments of the bone characteristic function to rapidly compute contact forces and determine bone erosion. The visual component uses a time-critical particle system evolution method to simulate secondary visual effects, such as bone debris accumulation, blooding, irrigation, and suction.