Back to results
US 2007/0171200 A1Published application
Physically realistic computer simulation of medical procedures
AssigneeImmersion Corporation, a Delaware Corporation
InventorLouis Rosenberg
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for interfacing the movement of a shaft with a computer includes a support, a gimbal mechanism having two degrees of freedom, and three electromechanical transducers. When a shaft is engaged with the gimbal mechanism, it can move with three degrees of freedom in a spherical coordinate space, where each degree of freedom is sensed by one of the three transducers. A fourth transducer can be used to sense rotation of the shaft around an axis.
Claims1
A method for computer simulation, comprising:
- generating a virtual reality simulation on a host computer having a display;
- manipulating a medical instrument coupled to an interface including a mechanism, the medical instrument slidably moveable through an aperture of the mechanism along a linear degree of freedom;
- sensing movement of the medical instrument in at least two rotary degrees of freedom and the linear degree of freedom;
- transmitting position information of the medical instrument at the interface based on the sensed movement to the host computer;
- updating the displayed virtual reality simulation in response to the updated position information;
- selectively transmitting a force command from the host computer to the interface based on the updated position information;
- and
- generating a force feedback sensation on the medical instrument in response to the force command.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.