A Medical Image Visualization Technique Assisted with AI-Based Haptic Feedback for Robotic Surgery and Healthcare

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 13; no. 6; p. 3592
• Main Authors: Minopoulos, Georgios M, Memos, Vasileios A, Stergiou, Konstantinos D, Stergiou, Christos L, Psannis, Konstantinos E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-03-2023
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Augmented Reality; Cadavers; Computer applications; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Developed countries; Disease control; Disease transmission; Epidemics; Haptics; Health care; Health care industry; Health services; Infectious diseases; Magnetic resonance imaging; Medical education; Medical imaging; Medical imaging equipment; Medical personnel; Methods; Orthopedics; Patients; Public health; Robotic surgery; Scientific visualization; Software; tactile internet; Telemedicine; Three dimensional imaging; Tomography; Virtual reality; Visualization; Visualization (Computers); Working conditions
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app13063592

A lesson learned during the pandemic is that social distancing saves lives. As it was shown recently, the healthcare industry is structured in a way that cannot protect medical staff from possible infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Today’s healthcare services seem anachronistic and not convenient for both doctors and patients. Although there have been several advances in recent years, especially in developed countries, the need for a holistic change is imperative. Evidently, future technologies should be introduced in the health sector, where Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Tactile Internet can have vast applications. Thus, the healthcare industry could take advantage of the great evolution of pervasive computing. In this paper, we point out the challenges from the current visualization techniques and present a novel visualization technique assisted with haptics which is enhanced with artificial intelligent algorithms in order to offer remote patient examination and treatment through robotics. Such an approach provides a more detailed method of medical image data visualization and eliminates the possibility of diseases spreading, while reducing the workload of the medical staff.