A Haptic User Interface to Assess the Mobility of the Newborn's Neck

Abstract

A virtual reality program has been developed to assess the strength and flexibility of a computer based model of a term fetus or newborn baby's neck. The software has a haptic/force feedback user interface which allows clinical experts to adjust the mechanical properties, including range of motion and mechanical stiffness of a newborn neck model, at runtime. The developed software was assessed by ten clinical experts in obstetrics. The empirically obtained stiffness and range of motion values corresponded well with values reported in the literature.