Not to take the topic away from the video, but the actual work that's going on with the Da Vinci Machine in JHU LCSR is unbelievable. They've developed a software that creates invisible barriers in the code of the robot that can be placed anywhere and given very specific material properties - even programmed to move. What this allows them to do is create a barrier around the surgical area that stops the robot's tool before it hits anything vital - AND gives feedback to the surgeon's hand as if he were actually hitting the organ being mimicked.
I got the opportunity to use that very machine in the video while they were mimicking a beating heart. As I was tying a knot on their test plate, they told me to move the pliers toward the "heart". What I felt was a soft beating motion push back on the controls - yet there was nothing physical there.
If you're here at Gizmodo because you love this kind of stuff - I STRONGLY recommend you take a look at their website and at the works published by professor Allison Okamura. It's truly mind-blowing.
DISCUSSION
AHHHH I WORKED THERE.
Not to take the topic away from the video, but the actual work that's going on with the Da Vinci Machine in JHU LCSR is unbelievable. They've developed a software that creates invisible barriers in the code of the robot that can be placed anywhere and given very specific material properties - even programmed to move. What this allows them to do is create a barrier around the surgical area that stops the robot's tool before it hits anything vital - AND gives feedback to the surgeon's hand as if he were actually hitting the organ being mimicked.
I got the opportunity to use that very machine in the video while they were mimicking a beating heart. As I was tying a knot on their test plate, they told me to move the pliers toward the "heart". What I felt was a soft beating motion push back on the controls - yet there was nothing physical there.
If you're here at Gizmodo because you love this kind of stuff - I STRONGLY recommend you take a look at their website and at the works published by professor Allison Okamura. It's truly mind-blowing.