Design and development of a real-time eye surgery simulator

Abstract

Eyes are sensory organs in human body that provide vision by reacting to lights. Eye disease is categorized as one of the most common public health concerns nowadays. Medical practitioners are compulsory to undergo several months of surgical training in order to be familiarized with the procedures that involved in the eye surgery. The rapid growth of computer technology on graphical processing unit enhances the visualization of three dimensional graphical models. This phenomenon leads to the rising of surgical simulators that generate realistic virtual surgery environment as an alternative way for medical students to practice their surgical skills and procedures. This paper gives an overview on the development of an eye surgery simulator. The surgery simulator consists of a force feedback haptic device that provides tactile force feedback when contact is detected. A detailed 3-D graphical model of eye anatomy is implemented into the simulator as the experimental object for medical practitioners. The performance of the system on haptic rendering and graphic rendering has been discussed and future work to improve the simulator is concluded in the end of the paper.