A PC-based system architecture for real-time finite element-based tool-specific surgical simulation

Up to now, true finite element methods have been thought too slow to achieve visual and haptic feedback in real-time, or required extensive pre-computation in a manner that made them incompatible with a clinical situation involving topological change, as is often the case in surgery. This paper proposes a system architecture for achieving a truly FE-based surgical simulator, capable of real-time haptic and visual feedback, from a standard dual-Pentium personal computer featuring dedicated hardware. Another important characteristic of this research is that it integrates a 7 degree-of-freedom (DOF) haptic device, and features a means for simulating a surgical tool whose tip is at an arbitrary position with respect to the effector end of the device, leading to flexible, tool-specific simulation, both haptically and visually. (C) 2004 CARS and Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.