Gesture Interface Maintains Sterility During Surgical Procedures

A new hand gesture recognition system enables doctors to manipulate digital images during medical procedures by motioning instead of touching a screen, keyboard, or mouse, which compromises sterility and could spread infection.

Developed by researchers at Ben Gurion University (BGU, Beer Sheva, Israel), the hand gesture recognition system (Gestix) interprets in real time the user's gestures for navigation and manipulation of images in an electronic medical record (EMR) database. Navigation and other gestures are translated to commands based on their temporal trajectories, through video capture. The system needs to be calibrated to the surgeon in two stages; an initial stage, in which the machine recognizes the surgeons' hand gestures, and a second stage where the surgeon must learn and implement eight navigation gestures, including rapid movement of the hand away from a "neutral area” and back again. Gestix users also have the option of zooming in and out by moving the hand clockwise or counterclockwise. To avoid sending unintended signals, users may put the system into a ‘sleep mode' by dropping the hand. The gestures are captured by a Canon VC-C4 camera, positioned above a large flat screen monitor, using a personal computer (PC) and a video-capturing device.

The system was successfully tested recently in an actual neurosurgical brain biopsy at the Washington Hospital Center (Washington DC, USA). In the in vivo experiment, the interface prevented the surgeon's focus shift and change of location, while at the same time achieving a rapid intuitive reaction and easy interaction. The experiment, as well as additional data from two usability tests providing insights and implications regarding human-computer interaction based on nonverbal conversational modalities, is described in a study published in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).

"A sterile human-machine interface is of supreme importance because it is the means by which the surgeon controls medical information, avoiding patient contamination, the operating room (OR) and the other surgeons,” said lead author Juan P. Wachs, Ph.D., of the department of industrial engineering and management at BGU. "This could replace touch screens now used in many hospital operating rooms which must be sealed to prevent accumulation or spreading of contaminants and requires smooth surfaces that must be thoroughly cleaned after each procedure – but sometimes aren't. With infection rates at U.S. hospitals now at unacceptably high rates, our system offers a possible alternative.”


Related Links:
Ben Gurion University
Washington Hospital Center