Haptic Innovations Add Value in a Range of Medical Applications

Medical Simulation

As one of the early pioneers in virtual reality (VR) medical simulation, Immersion’s haptic technology innovations contribute to training the next generation of medical practitioners, (surgeons, interventionalists, and nurses) through their incorporation into VR siumulation from several of the world’s leading medical simulation companies.  Today, our extensive patented technologies bring tactile realism to medical education, creating an engaging multisensory experience that helps increase clinical proficiency and decrease medical errors and cost.

Medical Devices

Implementation of haptics into medical devices can benefit practitioners, patients and device manufacturers.  For a medical practitioner, using instrumentation and hand tools with haptics helps improve confidence by providing immediate feedback via haptics alerts and force feedback to help guide the procedure, ultimately reducing errors by reinstating the sense of touch.

Patient medical devices, including wearable technology such as monitoring devices or home equipment can be enhanced through haptics by creating critical touch feedback frequently missing in today’s smooth surfaced interfaces.  Uusers get immediate confirmation that their touch is being recognized by the touchscreens and touch panel device.  Wearable devices can provide haptic alerts, ensuring the user receives urgent information when sight and sound are limited or unreliable forms of communication.

Utilization of a haptics interface provides the device manufacturer with another communication mode – transmitting key device performance & procedural progress information in a unique manner.  Haptics can provide an effective alternative to more traditional user interface methods, (ie., sound & sight) for delivering feedback to the clinician.

Learn more about Immersion’s TouchSense 2000 for Portable Touchscreen and Touch Panel Mass Market Devices
Learn more about Immersion’s TouchSense Force Feedback

Touchscreen & Touch Panel Products

As the consumer electronics world moves to incorporating touch interfaces into more products, medical device manufacturers have kept pace through the utilization of touchscreens and touch panels in products such as ultrasound machines, bedside controls and vital sign monitoring systems.  The addition of haptic feedback to the touch interface in these medical products restores “feel” to the interaction providing the healthcare professional with intuitive and unmistakable confirmation through delivery of critical information such as IV flow rate changes, vital sign alarm parameters, or dosage thresholds.

Learn more about Immersion’s TouchSense 1000 for Large and Rugged Touchscreens
Learn more about Immersion’s TouchSense 2000 for Portable Mass Market Devices

Robotic Surgery

Within the past 10 years, robotic surgical systems have revolutionized the way surgeons’ approach minimally invasive surgery especially laparoscopic and arthroscopic procedures. However, one of the deficiencies of most robotic surgical systems today is the lack of the sensation of touch for the surgeon. Implementation of haptic feedback into robotic surgical systems can transform the physician’s user experience by enabling identification of different tissue structures, preventing tissue damage, insuring correct suture placement and decreasing task completion time.    

Learn more about Immersion's TouchSense® Force Feedback