The development of a haptic interface for the Virtual Translumenal Endoscopic Surgical Trainer (VTEST.

Natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) is an experimental surgical technique with benefits including reduced pain, post operative recovery period and better cosmesis compared to traditional laparoscopic procedures. In a pure NOTES procedure, a flexible endoscope is used for performing the surgery and visualization. The Virtual Translumenal Endoscopic Surgical Trainer (VTEST(TM)) is being developed as a platform to train for NOTES procedures and innovate NOTES tools and techniques. In this work we report the design specification for the hardware interface to be used for VTEST(TM).