Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Learning requires collaboration between an expert and a novice. To collaborate efficiently, these partners must construct a Common Frame-of-Reference (CFR) system. The CFR is a representation of the shared situation, which is updated continuously by an information exchange between a teacher and a learner. The CFR allows the teacher and the learner to understand each other and to organize their action in a common framework. In everyday life, this paradigm is observed when an expert takes the hand of a novice to demonstrate a movement. A grounding process occurs when the team partners exchange information and share signs of understanding to develop their CFR. Depending on the task, the partners may use different communication channels (voice, vision, and haptics) to develop their CFR. The main goal of this RTI is to acquire four (4) haptic interface (one for each hand of the teacher and the student) and two high-end laptop computers to develop a new visuo-haptic training system based on the What You-Feel-Is-What-I-Feel (WYFIWIF) paradigm. WYFIWIF will allow trainers to guide novice surgeons haptically and visually. Using this novel MIS training paradigm, the two hands of an expert surgeon will feel and correct haptically the motion and forces a training surgeon hands should apply during a MIS procedure. In WYFIWIF, the student perceives the teacher both visually and haptically while the teacher performs a procedure involving ambidextrous tool use. This comprehensive perception of a task forces the learner to construct movement coordination through practice, and hence facilitates skill acquisition. This new paradigm could replace traditional surgical simulators, which rely on simplified visuo-haptic interaction, and are known to be inaccurate and un-realistic.