Virtual reality simulation of surgery with haptic feedback based on the boundary element method

A virtual reality real-time simulation of surgical operations has been developed using the boundary element (BE) method. Other numerical techniques and related approaches to real-time modelling of deformable objects are briefly reviewed. The challenges raised by a key application - the simulation of neurosurgery - are identified. A brief review of the BE method is presented followed by a description of its implementation for three basic actions of prodding, pinching and cutting deformable objects. An initial implementation of these techniques is described in which haptic and visual feedbacks are generated when these operations are carried out on simple deformable objects. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.