eLaparo4D: A Step Towards a Physical Training Space for Virtual Video Laparoscopic Surgery

Abstract

The paper presents the preliminary implementation of eLaparo4D, an immersive training space designed for videolaparoscopic surgery. This is a low-cost training space which integrates haptic devices with realistic surgery tools and 3D rendering with physically deformable 3D CG models of the human internal organs. The main objective of the eLaparo4D first prototype is to design effective training exercises for medicine students within a realistic scenario of a videolaparoscopic operating room. The simulator is based on a client/server layered architecture in order to act as a sort of data gateway: the hardware is interfaced with the physics 3D engine to obtain real-time performances, with an HTML5-based 3D output visual interface in order to integrate the tracking of operating sessions within a custom training platform.