Novel real-time Tremor Transduction Technique for Microsurgery

Abstract

Physiological tremor is one of the limiting factors to the scale on which a microsurgeon can operate. The ability to correctly determine the amount of tremor a surgeon has is an invaluable tool both for tremor cancellation and for surgical training. For this reason we have developed a novel tremor transducer using a custom built VLSI motion detection chip connected to the surgical microscope. The chip detects and measures the magnified motion of a microsurgical tool tip under the microscope. This innovative design offers several advantages over conventional methods. It is nonintrusive to the surgeon - not interfering with current microsurgical set-ups; it outputs real-time tremor data, and is small and inexpensive. The system has been implemented in an experimental set-up for analysis of the factors that aggravate tremor. Results presented, include the use of the system as a audio feedback mechanism for tremor reduction - eliciting up to a 16% reduction in tremor.