Development of a medical telediagnostic system with tactile haptic interfaces

Abstract

This paper aims at developing a tele-robotic hand for breast cancer diagnostics with tactile sensing and haptic feedback. An anthropomorphic, robotic hand to perform a clinical breast exam was developed. A high resolution optical tactile sensor was integrated with the hand to obtain information regarding the characteristics of the tumor inside of the patients breast This information can be fed back desirably to the physician via a newly developed electrotactile haptic device. Experimental results were obtained by testing these devices on an artificial breast model. The high resolution tactile images that clearly showed the surface shape of the tumors. Furthermore the features of the tactile images were transferred as electrotactile excitation to an operator. The results verify the performance of these new devices and thereby the technology's potential to provide a critical and major step towards the development of better and more reliable medical tele-diagnostic systems. © 2005 IEEE.