Mark Antony Hughes*, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Human-Computer Interface (HCI) Design Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Mermaid Room: Room 2 - Aldgate/Bishopsgate Date: 2013-09-23 02:00 PM – 03:30 PM Last modified: 2013-09-25

If you are the presenter of this abstract (or if you cite this abstract in a talk or on a poster), please show the QR code in your slide or poster (QR code contains this URL).

In the operating theatre surgeons must reliably deploy a broad range of motor and cognitive skills. Learning these skills is difficult; made more so by restrictions on working hours and changes in patient perception of appropriate training environments. To counteract these issues, innovative and effective additions to the armamentarium of surgical training tools are needed. These should serve to maintain and enhance surgeon performance.

With this in mind, we are taking advantage of emerging gesture interface technologies to create a new training and warm-up arena for surgeons. Our first generation platform utilises handheld fiducials (used as a point of reference in a field of view) in combination with a webcam-equipped laptop. The user's hand movements are tracked in real time as they perform on-screen tasks. The portfolio of tasks has been designed to abstract important aspects of key motor and cognitive skills deployed during operative surgery.

A 'tissue tension' task involves manipulating an on-screen linear tissue plain. Whilst one hand carefully retracts the tissue, the other simultaneously identifies, mobilizes, and manipulates a separate object into the surgical field. Care must be taken to minimize extraneous tissue tension: not doing so will result in failure. Levels become progressively more challenging, demanding accurate bimanual motor skills and spatial awareness. 'Ambidexterity' is a second task utilising rotatory hand movements as the primary gesture. It is designed to promote equal reliance on both the dominant and non-dominant hands. This task is influenced by the observation that expert surgeons operate with equal handedness.

We are currently assessing the practicality and validity of this app (in clinical and educational contexts), whilst simultaneously expanding the repertoire of training tasks. Webcam-enabled computers are ubiquitous and the software itself is downloaded online, meaning that the only additional hardware required is a set of handheld fiducials. Objective validation as a learning tool is a current priority, and will inform iterative development that may lead to a second-generation product using infrared (or other) gesture interface technology.