Doctors To Control Robot Surgeon With Their Eyes

trogador writes "Researchers from Imperial College London are improving the Da Vinci surgical robot by installing an eye-tracker, which allows surgeons to control the robot's knife simply by looking at the patient's tissues on a screen. Tracking the eyes can generate a 3D map, which in turn can make moving organs — like a beating heart — appear to stand still for easier operation. Other features include 'see-through' tissues on the surgeon's screen (so tumors can be seen underneath tissues) and 'no-cut' zones, places where the robot won't allow the surgeon to cut by mistake. Says ICL Professor Guang Zhong Yang, 'We want to empower the robot and make it more autonomous.'"

Precision?

[ScrewMaster]

"It shows you the tumour in relation to its anatomical structure," Darzi said. That means the surgeon can be more precise and avoid cutting out large amounts of healthy tissue.

Lack of precision isn't the only reason surgeons remove large amounts of apparently "healthy" tissue along with a tumor ... it's to make sure they get all of it.

Re:jerky movement

[ScrewMaster]

Those movements are called "sacchades" and they are important to preventing retinal fatigue. They're actually fairly predictable and it shouldn't be hard to average them out.

Eye control?

[ceoyoyo]

Why? I did some work on development of a surgical robot. Surgeons use their tactile senses a lot, and its important to have 3D haptic feedback. Why in the world would you want to control a robot with your eyes? You can't even tell it how hard or deep to cut.