FundamentalVR Implements Eye-Tracking into Medical Simulation Platform
Fundamental Surgery Now Supports the Vive Pro Eye Headset, Allowing Users to Have a More Seamless and Better Measured Surgical HapticVR™ Training Experience
FundamentalVR, pioneers of immersive HapticVR™ training technology, which combines virtual reality (VR) with haptics (sense of touch), announced its education platform, Fundamental Surgery Fundamental Surgery, is now the first surgical simulation software system to implement eye-tracking capabilities. Committed to offering surgeons, medical students and institutions with premier training technologies that help them hone and improve their skills as well as collect invaluable data on surgical proficiency, Fundamental Surgery now supports the Vive Pro Eye, a VR headset that offers accurate eye-tracking capabilities.
Thanks to this new implementation, those that use Fundamental Surgery with the Vive Pro Eye headset can now manage and explore the medical virtual space with greater ease and precision by navigating with their gaze. From taking X-rays and answering intra-operative multiple choice questions to selecting a specific tool or instrument, the new eye-tracking capability allows users to more seamlessly navigate the surgical platform.
In addition to offering a simpler method to pilot the platform, the new capability also allows users and their supervisors to collect even data around what each user is paying attention to during surgical simulations and better measure their surgical precision and overall performance.
“For surgeons, understanding where to look and focus attention during a procedure is an imperative skills set,” said Richard Vincent, CEO at FundamentalVR. “As a company committed to providing surgeons with the best virtual reality training experience possible with Fundamental Surgery, enabling eye-tracking was an obvious and important new offering for us to provide users to practice their visual skills easily, from a virtual world.”
Named as one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine and 2019 winners of the SXSW Innovation Award for VR/AR & MR, the Fundamental Surgery platform was launched in August 2018. It combines VR with cutting-edge haptics to create a scalable ‘flight simulator’ experience for trainee and qualified surgeons, allowing them to experience and navigate the same visuals, sounds and feelings they would during a real surgical procedure.
What sets Fundamental Surgery apart from other solutions is that it is designed to be equipment agnostic, compatible with any VR-enabled laptop, VR headset or haptic device enabling it to be delivered at a fraction of the cost. Furthermore, its remote data analytics and data dashboard covering surgical skills and knowledge provide invaluable insight into surgical capability and education progression.
While other simulations are limited to visual and audio interactions, Fundamental Surgery takes it to a new level with HapticVR™ , its proprietary technology that adds a real-time sense of touch. At the heart of the system is the uniqueSurgical Haptic Intelligence Engine™ (SHIE™) , which is calibrated by a leading team of surgeons to mimic real-life sensations of numerous medical tools and tissue variants within a submillimeter accuracy of resistance.
Today, Fundamental Surgery is deployed with a number of medical institutions including Mayo Clinic and UCLA in the U.S., UCLH in the U.K. and Sana in Germany with initial training packages focused on the orthopedic surgical disciplines. Additionally, individually configured versions are also deployed on a global basis by a number of medical device and pharma companies who have had the platform configured to their specific educational needs, thus accelerating the safe and compliant use of their products.
The procedures it currently supports include Spinal Pedicle Screw, Total Hip Arthroplasty (Posterior), Total Hip Arthroplasty (Anterior) and Total Knee Arthroplasty. It can be seen in action here.
