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Deleted_171835
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Yes, I know this isn't gaming news but I found it somewhat interesting.QUOTE said:The robotic technology predicts the movement of the heart as it beats, enabling the surgical tools to move in concert with each beat. It means that the
surgeon can perform a procedure as if the heart was stationary. This development could be very important for millions of patients who require less invasive surgical heart procedures, where stopping the heart from beating would cause unnecessary risk.
Rogério Richa, Philippe Poignet and Chao Liu from France's Montpellier Laboratory of Informatics, Robotics, and Microelectronics developed a three-dimensional computerized model that tracks the motion of the heart's surface as it beats. In addition to the heart, this model also accounts for the movement of a patient's chest wall during breathing. Known as the "thin-plate spline deformable model", this new computerized approach allows the robotic arm to continually adjust to heart and chest movements during surgery.
The new approach relies on a mathematical representation of the heart's surface as it moves in three dimensions during pumping. Researchers have made many attempts to use computer modelling to account for heart and breathing motion. However, previous efforts have relied on 2D imaging combined with other steps, making them to slow to provide instantaneous feedback during an operation. This new 3D imaging predicts the heart movements in a single step, making it faster in real-life surgical environments.
Source: Physorg