Using Collaborative Haptics in Remote Surgical Training. World Haptics

We describe the design and trial of a remotely conducted surgical master class, using a haptic virtual environment. The instructor was located in the United States and the class was in Australia. The responses of the audience and participants are presented. 1. Background Using haptics in remote collaboration has only recently been achieved in experimental situations, the major obstacle being feedback-induced instability. Kammermieir et al [2] state that haptic interaction implies a bilateral exchange of energy between the user and the environment. Communication delay (latency) can cause instability in remotely connected systems. Kim et al [3] achieved haptic collaboratio