Haptic Interaction in Medical Virtual Environments

Georgios Nikolakis

Georgios Nikolakis

Informatics & Telematics Institute, C.E.R.T.H., Thessaloniki, Greece

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Dimitrios Koutsonanos

Dimitrios Koutsonanos

Informatics & Telematics Institute, C.E.R.T.H., Thessaloniki, Greece

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Konstantinos Moustakas

Konstantinos Moustakas

Informatics & Telematics Institute, C.E.R.T.H., Thessaloniki, Greece

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Petros Daras

Petros Daras

Informatics & Telematics Institute, C.E.R.T.H., Thessaloniki, Greece

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Dimitrios Tzovaras

Dimitrios Tzovaras

Informatics & Telematics Institute, C.E.R.T.H., Thessaloniki, Greece

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Michael G. Strintzis

Michael G. Strintzis

Informatics & Telematics Institute, C.E.R.T.H., Thessaloniki, Greece

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First published: 14 April 2006
Citations: 3

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in developing force feedback interfaces that allow people to access information presented in 3D virtual reality environments (VEs). One of the major application fields is medicine. Several cases exist where standard medical treatment cannot be applied to patients for several reasons, such as distance from hospital, lack of specialized doctor, and lack of medical equipment. The use of haptic-enabled virtual environments provides an alternative solution in a variety of such cases, thus enabling assessment and treatment of patients. Furthermore, haptic-enabled virtual environments provide a nonhazardous means of treatment for several disorders like phobia treatment, where the patient has to be exposed to the phobia object. Training of disabled people, like the visually impaired, is another important application of haptic-enabled VEs. This chapter presents an extended description of haptic virtual environments and the major methodologies and techniques used in medical applications. Further, it demonstrates indicatively a number of applications in order to illustrate the applicability of VEs in several areas of medical treatment and training.

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