Haptic Glove and Platform with Gestural Control For Neuromorphic Tactile Sensory Feedback In Medical Telepresence †

Neuromorphic applications in medicine

In recent years, there has been a growing demand for miniaturization, low power consumption, quick treatments, and non-invasive clinical strategies in the healthcare industry. To meet these demands, healthcare professionals are seeking new technological paradigms that can improve diagnostic accuracy while ensuring patient compliance. Neuromorphic engineering, which uses neural models in hardware and software to replicate brain-like behaviors, can help usher in a new era of medicine by delivering low power, low latency, small footprint, and high bandwidth solutions. This paper provides an overview of recent neuromorphic advancements in medicine, including medical imaging and cancer diagnosis, processing of biosignals for diagnosis, and biomedical interfaces, such as motor, cognitive, and perception prostheses. For each section, we provide examples of how brain-inspired models can successfully compete with conventional artificial intelligence algorithms, demonstrating the potential of neuromorphic engineering to meet demands and improve patient outcomes. Lastly, we discuss current struggles in fitting neuromorphic hardware with non-neuromorphic technologies and propose potential solutions for future bottlenecks in hardware compatibility.

Proposal of a Real-Time Test Platform for Tactile Internet Systems

This work aimed to develop a real-time test platform for systems associated with the tactile internet area. The proposal comprises a master device, a communication channel and a slave device. The master device is a tactile glove (wearable technology) that works as a tactile interface based on vibratory feedback. The master device can interact with virtual elements (local or remote). The Matlab/Simulink environment and a robotics toolbox form the communication channel and the slave device. The communication channel introduces a bidirectional connection of variable latency, and the slave device is defined as a robotic phantom omni manipulator emulated in Matlab/Simulink. The virtual robotic manipulator, the slave device, can generate different types of tactile sensations in the tactile glove, that is, in the master device. The platform can model tactile sensations such as coarse roughness, fine roughness, smoothness, dripping and softness. The proposed platform presented adequate results and can be used to test various algorithms and methods correlated to the tactile internet.

Gastroenterology in the Metaverse: The dawn of a new era?

2021 is known as the first Year of the Metaverse, and around the world, internet giants are eager to devote themselves to it. In this review, we will introduce the concept, current development, and application of the Metaverse and the use of the current basic technologies in the medical field, such as virtual reality and telemedicine. We also probe into the new model of gastroenterology in the future era of the Metaverse.

Key requirements of a video-call system in a critical care department as discovered during the rapid development of a solution to address COVID-19 visitor restrictions

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated stringent visitor restrictions in critical care departments worldwide, creating challenges in keeping family members connected to patients and clinical staff. Previous studies have examined how hospitals addressed this challenge by repurposing existing tele-ICU systems or by using personal smartphones as a workaround and have analyzed clinical and family feedback. This case report addresses the experience of rapidly implementing a video-call system in the critical care department of a tertiary referral hospital that had no prior video-call system in place, detailing the key requirements in that setting. The 24 requirements were identified via interviews and surveys to both clinical and technical professionals. The top requirements identified were sound and video quality, usability for clinical staff, call control by staff, and patient privacy. From tailoring a video-call solution for this setting, we learned that video-endpoint selection is a key design decision. The initial proposal was to use wireless tablets, but the selection of a large wired video-endpoint allowed us to better address the requirements in the critical care setting. This was based on several characteristics of the large wired video-endpoint, including: high-fidelity video and sound, with directional noise-cancelling; large touch-screen setup for minimal-click navigation; wired as well as wireless connectivity.

Assessing the Stiffness Perception of Acupressure Massage Beginning Learners: A Pilot Study

Visually impaired licensed therapists must have the ability to perceive stiffness through their fingertips in the school for the blind. The teachers strive to provide careful introductory education based on a quantitative assessment of new students’ basic stiffness perception. However, assessment materials to help teachers understand new students’ stiffness perception are lacking. This study aimed to develop suitable fundamental assessment materials that visually impaired licensed teachers could use to quantitatively assess the difference in the stiffness perception ability of beginning learners in the early stages of learning. They were asked to discriminate the presented materials one at a time, which consisted of thermoplastic elastomers with different degrees of stiffness. We used these materials to compare the beginning learners’ ability to perceive stiffness with that of teachers and found that teachers answered correctly at an overall significantly higher rate. Specifically, the teachers’ correct response rate (78.8%) for the stiffness perception of all presented stimuli was approximately 15% higher than the beginning learners’ correct response rate (64.2%). These results revealed areas of stiffness that are difficult for beginning learners to identify.

Proposal of the Tactile Glove Device

This project aims to develop a tactile glove device and a virtual environment inserted in the context of tactile internet. The tactile glove allows a human operator to interact remotely with objects from a 3D environment through tactile feedback or tactile sensation. In other words, the human operator is able to feel the contour and texture from virtual objects. Applications such as remote diagnostics, games, remote analysis of materials, and others in which objects could be virtualized can be significantly improved using this kind of device. These gloves have been an essential device in all research on the internet next generation called "Tactile Internet", in which this project is inserted. Unlike the works presented in the literature, the novelty of this work is related to architecture, and tactile devices developed. They are within the 10 ms round trip latency limits required in a tactile internet environment. Details of hardware and software designs of a tactile glove, as well as the virtual environment, are described. Results and comparative analysis about round trip latency time in the tactile internet environment is developed.

A Mechatronic Platform for Computer Aided Detection of Nodules in Anatomopathological Analyses via Stiffness and Ultrasound Measurements

This study presents a platform for ex-vivo detection of cancer nodules, addressing automation of medical diagnoses in surgery and associated histological analyses. The proposed approach takes advantage of the property of cancer to alter the mechanical and acoustical properties of tissues, because of changes in stiffness and density. A force sensor and an ultrasound probe were combined to detect such alterations during force-regulated indentations. To explore the specimens, regardless of their orientation and shape, a scanned area of the test sample was defined using shape recognition applying optical background subtraction to the images captured by a camera. The motorized platform was validated using seven phantom tissues, simulating the mechanical and acoustical properties of ex-vivo diseased tissues, including stiffer nodules that can be encountered in pathological conditions during histological analyses. Results demonstrated the platform’s ability to automatically explore and identify the inclusions in the phantom. Overall, the system was able to correctly identify up to 90.3% of the inclusions by means of stiffness in combination with ultrasound measurements, paving pathways towards robotic palpation during intraoperative examinations.