Collision Detection in Computer Simulations for Wrist Arthroscopic Surgery Training

Computer-Based surgical simulators are one of the most recent topics in virtual reality development. They have become the training method and the tool to acquire valuable information for many medical students and medical practitioners. The real-time interactive collision detection is an important problem that must be addressed to make such simulators more realistic. In this regard, this paper addresses the issue of precise collision detection between virtual objects and proposes a new technique. First, the convex hull of each object is constructed. Then, the problem is formulated and a linear programming solution is obtained to determine whether a collision exists or not. The algorithm is tested on a medical application. The proposed collision detection approach is compared with two conventional algorithms namely the IVRI-CD and SWIFT techniques and validated using a 3D wrist model. A Haptic feedback system is implemented for evaluation purposes. The results show that the proposed approach is efficient, accurate, fast and robust in detecting collision between virtual objects during training and experimenting surgery.