Medical training company FundamentalVR Ltd. today announced a showcase of virtual reality gesture tracking and touch-simulating HaptX Gloves from AxonVR LLC as part of the company’s Fundamental Surgery platform.

The gloves combine cutting-edge virtual reality technology — in order to immerse surgeons in a training scenario with lifelike simulations — with haptic technology, which provides a sense of touch and sensation. Together these two technologies allow the creation of a surgical simulation that allows surgeons to experience the same sights, sounds and sensations they would encounter during an actual medical procedure.

The Fundamental Surgery platform was launched in August and was hailed as one of the best innovations of 2018 by Time Magazine. The HaptX Gloves and the platform will be demonstrated for the first time this week at the annual general meeting of the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons in Las Vegas.

“When it comes to surgical training simulations, a sense of touch is a game changer, but has traditionally only been possible with immobile equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Richard Vincent, chief executive of FundamentalVR. “The Fundamental Surgery platform delivers highly sophisticated tactile feedback at a fraction of the cost through a software approach that can work with a range of haptic devices. Our platform currently works with haptic arms, but is designed to evolve as hardware innovations allow new products such as HaptX Gloves to come to market.”

The Fundamental Surgery platform differentiates itself from other similar products on the market in that it is equipment agnostic. It can run with any laptop or computer setup that meets the hardware requirements and will also support any number of VR headsets and haptic devices, including the HaptX Gloves.

The HaptX Gloves represent the best touch-simulating technology available today. They are powered by microfluidic technology, housing more than 130 tactile actuators designed to press against the user’s skin, creating the sensation of touching a physical object.

The glove is combined with an exoskeleton capable of providing force-feedback, up to four pounds of force per finger, which would provide an enhanced sensation of rigidity and solidity to any virtual object. Finally, motion capture and gesture recognition software tracks the movement of the user’s hands with submillimeter precision.

The demonstration planned for today will allow users a chance to test the training simulation in VR, hands-on with the haptic gloves to perform an Anterior Total Hip Arthroplasty.

The VR simulation will allow surgeons to see the hip bone and pelvis. The haptic gloves will let them “feel” the sensation of the bony growths along the rim of the hip socket and feel the key ligament in the leg needed to orient the surgeon during a few critical steps of the operation.

“The ability to touch and interact naturally with virtual environments is transforming the way industries train workers and bring products to market,” said Jake Rubin, founder and chief executive of HaptX. “The healthcare industry is at the forefront of this shift, and it’s set to be transformed by advancements in VR and haptics.”

Although VR is being explored extensively for training surgeons and providing important information on how to do surgeries, simulations are greatly enhanced with the addition of touch sensation. The extra layer of realism creates a paradigm shift in training opportunities in that it helps develop the muscle memory for performing surgery that would otherwise require neophyte surgeons to operate on cadavers or live people to gain the same experience.

The Fundamental Surgery VR platform is already deployed with a number of medical institutions around the world including Mayo Clinic and the University of California at Los Angeles, University College London Hospital in the U.K. and Sana in Germany.

The platform currently supports training in a number of surgical operations: Spinal Pedicle Screw, Total Hip Arthroplasty (Posterior), Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior) and Total Knee Arthroplasty. It can be seen in action in a YouTube video.

Photo: FundamentalVR