Force-feedback assisted and virtual fixtures based K-wire drilling simulation.

One common method to fix fractures of the human hand after an accident is an osteosynthesis with Kirschner wires (K-wires) to stabilize the bone fragments. The insertion of K-wires is a delicate minimally invasive surgery, because surgeons operate almost without a sight. Since realistic training methods are time consuming, costly and insufficient, a virtual-reality (VR) based training system for the placement of K-wires was developed. As part of this, the current work deals with the real-time bone drilling simulation using a haptic force-feedback device. To simulate the drilling, we introduce a virtual fixture based force-feedback drilling approach. By decomposition of the drilling task into individual phases, each phase can be handled individually to perfectly control the drilling procedure. We report about the related finite state machine (FSM), describe the haptic feedback of each state and explain, how to avoid jerking of the haptic force-feedback during state transition. The usage of the virtual fixture approach results in a good haptic performance and a stable drilling behavior. This was confirmed by 26 expert surgeons, who evaluated the virtual drilling on the simulator and rated it as very realistic. To make the system even more convincing, we determined real drilling feed rates through experimental pig bone drilling and transferred them to our system. Due to a constant simulation thread we can guarantee a precise drilling motion. Virtual fixtures based force-feedback calculation is able to simulate force-feedback assisted bone drilling with high quality and, thus, will have a great potential in developing medical applications.

New Service Excellence Model for eHealth and AAL Solutions - A Framework for Continuous New Service Development.

The development of eHealth and AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) services with the aim to reduce the complexity of living environments for the elderly often does not lead to the desired results on the market. The design of an eHealth/AAL specific framework for continuous New Service Development is presented in this paper. Our research addresses this challenge with a new Service Excellence Model (SEM) and outlines the benefits of this specific approach. The research is based on the data of the DALIA project (Assistant for DAily LIfe Activities at Home) and the PenAAL project (Performance Measurement Index for AAL solutions), parts of which the projects were the classification of relevant business dimensions and the development of a related scoring tool for continuous benchmarking and improvement.

AAL Service Performance Measurement Cube - Key Criteria for AAL New Service Development.

UNLABELLED: The living environments of senior citizens are gaining in complexity with regard to health, mobility, information, support and behaviour. The development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) services in order to reduce this complexity is becoming increasingly important. The question is: What relevant criteria support the development, measurement and evaluation of business models of hybrid AAL services which have to be considered in an appropriate Performance Measurement Set? Within the EU funded research project DALIA (Assistant for Daily Life Activities at Home) a Service Performance Measurement Criteria (SPMC) Set has been developed and described. With the help of literature review and expert interviews relevant performance criteria were identified and described in the context of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In conjunction with an AAL business models scanning, a set of performance measurement criteria could be created. DISCUSSION: The development and application of a specific AAL SPMC Set offers the possibility in a targeted and conceptual way advance the development of marketable AAL services. Here it will be important to integrate with software support the SPMC Set in the service development process of future marketable AAL applications. With the application of an adjusted AAL Service Performance Measurement Cube, the conceptual development of marketable AAL services can be maintained and relevant decisions can be supported.