The results suggest that visual and tactile feedback can be useful for laparoscopic palpation; however, their effects depend on the means in which they are presented.
We aim to achieve intraoperative localization of an early-stage gastric tumor that cannot be visually detected during laparoscopic surgery. In this study, we developed and evaluated a pneumatic tactile ring, which is a clinically applicable tactile device to provide instantaneous feedback from a tactile sensor directly manipulated by a surgeon. It was designed to be worn on the finger of the manipulating hand and to present pressure to the finger pad. It is lightweight, cost-effective, disposable, and sterilizable. We also developed a compact pneumatic drive unit to control the pressure and investigated its fundamental performance. The bandwidth of the pressure control was at least 1.3 Hz with a controllable range of up to 79.7 kPa. Moreover, a psychophysical experiment was performed to obtain the Weber ratio of the pressure and evaluate the effectiveness of the instantaneous tactile feedback of the sensor output through the tactile ring. The Weber ratio was 0.40 at the reference pressure of 22.7 kPa. The provided tactile feedback significantly reduced the absolute localization error and increased participants' confidence in their answers. It was shown that the tactile feedback through the ring is effective in laparoscopic tumor localization.
The theoretical and experimental results show that the sensor is sensitive to the deformation due to contact with an object and has the potential to detect a lump in laparoscopic surgery.
This paper aims to develop a wearable tactile sensor for measuring skin vibrations using a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film, which is a polymer piezo material. The sensor is worn on the finger pad where is remote from contact fingertip and detects skin-propagated vibrations when fingertip touches an object. The proposed sensor allows users to touch with bare fingers and to conduct active touch. A transfer function from vibrations applied on the fingertip to the sensor output is expressed by using a finger model, a sensor model, and an electric model of the PVDF film. On the basis of the transfer function, frequency response of the sensor is measured and estimation of vibrations is tested. Furthermore, the sensor output is investigated for three materials with different textures. Results show the validity and availability of the sensor.
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