Canadian Surgeons Perform Telerobotic Surgery 211
AndroidCat writes "While the equipment used isn't new, this operation was different because one of surgeons was 400km away. Dr. Mehran Anvari in Hamilton Ontario tele-operated instruments in North Bay General Hospital, supervised by Dr. Craig McKinley on site. The link was over a high priority routed Bell Canada connection. The patient, Ms. Fortier is doing quite well. Don't try this from home with a dialup connection."
at least... (Score:4, Funny)
New meaning of the Slashdot effect (Score:2)
Poor docs, now they'll have to carry Medical DoS Insurance...
Re:New meaning of the Slashdot effect (Score:3, Interesting)
This will not happen, but not for the reason you think.
If you think it through, you will realise that there are far more surgeons than robotic technicians. You might get away without the surgeon at one end, but who is going to fix the robot, or the internet connection? At this stage, robots, computers and networks generally die in operation far more often than their human equivalents.
Which means that the support crews are going to be huge.
In fact, it will be cheaper to fly the surgeon to a tiny island in the east china sea than to fly in the robotics. No to mention that you are going to keep the operating rooms equipped with stuff to do every complex operation that can be done?
This sort of thing may happen one day, but by then we will have robots doing much simpler tasks all the time; including things like driving taxi's around town, cleaning up your house and seeking election to another term of government.
Final take - experienced surgeons and teams are cheaper and more portable than this sort of technology, and its going to be a long time before that changes.
Michael
i wouldn't be so sure about that (Score:3, Insightful)
The actual point is that there are very peculiar operations that only a few surgeons in the world are able and willing to perform; e.g. the seperation of twins conjoined at their heads. Now compare flying them around from continent to continent to having them stay at home, where they could still be able to do the same job.
Of course it would be nice for our Chinese friend if someone set up a whole operating room in his home, but this is still science fiction. Flying him over to a nearby hospital on the mainland (or another island, wherever the nearest one is) and promptly starting the operation would still be an huge improvement over having him to transport to Beijing or having to wait days for a surgeon.
Re:i wouldn't be so sure about that (Score:5, Insightful)
These sort of people aren't cheap. The equipment isn't cheap. It has to be regularly serviced to ensure its ok. Its not the sort of stuff you stick in a remote place.
Hospitals have that kind of personnel anyway.
Big hospitals do. Small hospitals don't.
The actual point is that there are very peculiar operations that only a few surgeons in the world are able and willing to perform; e.g. the seperation of twins conjoined at their head
Right. And you think they perform solo? That you can just use any old scrub nurse to get this sort of equipment to work? That you can use any old anaesthetist to separate conjoined twins? That the twins can then just be dumped in any old hospital that probably doesn't even have an intensive care unit of any standard?
Now compare flying them around from continent to continent to having them stay at home, where they could still be able to do the same job.
You are still going to have to fly the rest of the team, so why not fly the surgeon too?
I work in this sort of environment, day in, day out. Its more than just the surgeon. Its a whole team, plus alot of technology. Most of which the people tend to forget happens. Half the time these sorts of places don't even have the equipment to make the diagnosis, never mind fix the problem.
Michael
bsod (Score:1)
Next, well start with the medula oblongota... (Score:2)
Re:Next, well start with the medula oblongota... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Next, well start with the medula oblongota... (Score:2)
Re:Next, well start with the medula oblongota... (Score:2)
Good thing... (Score:1, Redundant)
Uh-Oh (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Uh-Oh (Score:2, Funny)
hmm performance (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, if any encryption was done, because id be concerned with achieving maximum latency possible.
They said over a commercial network, so I'd have to assume encryption, possibly with special hardware for it.
Re:hmm performance (Score:2)
Re:hmm performance (Score:2, Funny)
Re:hmm performance (Score:1)
Re:hmm performance (Score:1, Interesting)
As for encryption, I doubt this would be used as its not really needed on a point to point dedicated circuit.
I simply cannot see the medical profession doing something of this seriousness over the internet or somesuchthing...
Re:hmm performance (Score:1, Funny)
Yeah.. because I can just picture what would happen if the ISP got their wires crossed and the medical implements ended up getting their commands from someone who was in the middle of a game of counterstrike.. %)
(no I didn't RTFA. This is slashdot.. you don't need to RTFA to post an informed opinion, remember?
Re:hmm performance (Score:2)
I mean there isnt much that's pinker than someone's insides. That shit is sure to get blocked.
Dr. Nick (Score:5, Funny)
Phone operator (Score:5, Funny)
Another justification for Internet2 (Score:3, Insightful)
Just last week, we had a drop out of the Abilene node and most traffic from our lab was routed onto commodity routes where the performance degredation in terms of bandwidth and latency was pretty noticeable. I have become used to the gigabit ethernet performance in my dual G4 and degradation in performance with it due to Internet2 downtime is frustrating.
If ever there is Internet2 (Score:1)
Computer Motion - telesurgery company (Score:5, Informative)
Cheers, Joel
As a side note... (Score:2, Funny)
Potential (Score:2, Insightful)
I can see it now. (Score:5, Funny)
<Mehran> This bit is critical... (Score:1, Funny)
<Craig> Oh shit!
I can see it now... (Score:1)
TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:5, Interesting)
We already use micro-manipulators to do things so fine that we humans find it hard to control our own hands to do. There are many things a machine just does much better than we can.. things like zoom vision, ability to see from angles where we can not get our heads to, and doing precision tasks. Ever tried to make stitches as precise as a sewing machine?
The business end of the machines can be much smaller than our fingers, and tools on the machine are designed expressly for needed things. None of this "hand me the scapel, nurse" stuff. The machine can have as many arms and tools as the designers deem necessary.
And the machines can be made absolutely sterile. It is really hard to sterilize a human, and still have us functional.
It is really a tiny, very tiny, step from going to having a surgeon sitting next to a patient doing the surgery, to having one on the other side of the world doing it... ( the main problem is latency ).
The biggest advantage to the patient is that his need of surgical services may happen at any time - what it means is there is a world-wide pool of surgeons available to help - right now. They do not need to get scrubbed. If they are a critical care surgeon, by golly, they may have their end right in their den at their personal residence. Even if the surgeon was in a most unsanitary condition at the time of need, that would not be a factor. Time is. And that is what this technology gives us. Who is best equipped to meet the need... NOW.
This is what dreams are made of. This is why we go to work. To make things like this.
This is why we need technology.
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:5, Interesting)
Halfway across the world seems retarded to me. In the same room using robotics seems absolutely delightful.
Speaking of long-distance stuff, though, it's a shame the FuFme [fufme.com] site is no longer running...
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:2, Insightful)
As you indicated, the main problem is indeed latency.
I note many corporations use live video teleconferencing over the net... so the idea of streaming video back to the surgeon does not seem all that off. Motor control has much less need of bandwidth than video. Packet loss can be handled by redundant packet technologies. I am very confident that suitable compression/encryption/data integrity assurance can be implemented to mitigate disruption or eavesdropping of the surgical procedures. I am afraid nothing can be done about DDoS or critical router failures, but consider the alternatives are no help at all.
In a time of need, I am willing to grab for any help I can find. Consider how reliable the net is and how little it is really crippled from technical issues such as this.. its something I am willing to bet my life on, given what the alternative is.
Thanks for the reply.
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:3, Insightful)
The worrisome part comes when they try to automate the process. Would you trust an operation to Dr Clippy? "I see that you're trying to take out the heart..."
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:5, Informative)
This is hardly the public internet.
backhoes take priority (Score:2)
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:1)
So one day training to be a medic might not involve any form of combat training.
And if the medics play their cards right, they might even be able to VPN into work (yea ok i pushed it to far on this one).
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:2)
for some odd reason this reminded me of a scene in Swordfish where a certain person had to do certain tasks in a most unfavorable (erm, favorable?) position.
medical profession do have it the best eh? being able to save somebody's life and be get some lovin' all at the same time - and get paid alot. For other professions it's just not logistically possible. Maybe except porn actors, but I'd hardly qualify that as "saving lives."
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:2)
Leave it alone, it's busy!
And back to work!
Re:TeleRobotics is almost a like a video game. (Score:2)
Go gettem tiger! Snag those dreams!
Well okay... (Score:2, Interesting)
No link, no matter how fast or secure, will let a physician monitor the status of his patient nearly as much as actually being there. I could do my job from remote at home, but my boss prefers I actually come in to work, in case something goes wrong I can be there first hand to see what's going wrong.
It's not like 400km is a great divide. Drive it. fly it. Okay, the operation was a success, but say it wasn't. The first question that's going to be asked is, "and you decided to perform the operation from beside your swimming pool watching it on your 14" TFT why?"
I'm not surprised this is possible, nor would I bother with the risk. What do we need airplane pilots or taxi drivers for, if these jobs can ben done by someone sitting behind a console or in a cafe. Hell, someone could fly two planes at once.
Get my drift?
Re:Well okay... (Score:2)
...no doubt asked by a manager of some description working form home beside THEIR pool...
C'mon... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're right--400 km isn't exactly a cross-continent trek, but keep in mind that a round trip by car would eat up eight hours of a skilled surgeon's time (and time is money), and even flying would take a few hours. Also, remember the surgery was in North Bay and performed by a doctor in Hamilton. North Bay isn't exacly a metropolitan hub--there's maybe what...50,000 people there? I don't think there are gonna be direct flights leaving hourly from Hamilton. Besides, do you know what the weather has been like in Ontario lately? Cold and horrible! Flight schedules aren't going to be reliable, and driving 400 km through a blizzard would be quite treacherous!
The next step is to start using this technology in places like Yellowknife. Yellowknife! Not exactly the kind of place that's teeming with specialised surgeons, and a doctor in Toronto can't easily hop a train, plane or taxi there, nor can the patient be safely relocated to Toronto without great expense and risk. You'd have to hop a 727 in Toronto to Edmonton, a lear jet to Ft. McMurray and a turboprop to Yellowknife (at best you might be able to avoid the stopover in Ft. McMurray)--or else spend a great deal of taxpayer's money in an already strained socialised haelthcare system on a special private direct flight.
Yup, telesurgery starts to look pretty appealing if you've been suffering on a long waiting list typical of the healthcare system in Canada, and it offers you the chance to get it done not only properly, but much sooner as well.
And if we put a taxi driver out of a job who the hell cares--he's probably an immigrant with 10 years of medical training and a long history of performing surgery in Pakistan, scaping out a living until all the immigration bullshit has been shoveled and he can get certified to work as a doctor in Canada. Maybe the money saved with this technology can make that process go faster so he can "do surgery by the pool" with Dr. Anvari. That old farmer in Cowcrap, Saskatchewan who needs his hernia fixed might appreciate the resulting shorter waiting time too...
Re:C'mon... (Score:1)
Yeah, okay, I might have gone a bit overboard there.
Also, remember the surgery was in North Bay and performed by a doctor in Hamilton. North Bay isn't exacly a metropolitan hub--there's maybe what...50,000 people there? I don't think there are gonna be direct flights leaving hourly from Hamilton. Besides, do you know what the weather has been like in Ontario lately? Cold and horrible!
Accepted. Since I'm a New Zealander, I'm not all that familiar with the Geography there. You make some good points, which I wish I had the benefit of when I posted. About the trip, I was thinking more of the patient being driven to the more capable surgeon, rather than the other way around. Of course, this isn't always possible, depending on the stability of the patient.
Thanks for your points.
My congratulations! (Score:2, Insightful)
Thank you for raising the level of discourse.
Re:C'mon... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd just like to point out that there are long waiting lists in the U.S. too; it's just that you are allowed to jump ahead in line if you have more money. If don't have enough money, you're not allowed to get in line. I'll take the Canadian system any day.
Re:Well okay... (Score:1)
The point is that the physician can not always be there on time.
Sure it's better to have the doctor there than the robot, but it's also better to have the robot there than have the doctor sitting on a plane.
Re:Well okay... (Score:2)
Tangental Thought ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Given the inherent safety issues with routine space travel, how difficult would it be to create a remotely manned orbiter to carry out space based experiments?
It seems like there would be a tremendous number of benefits -- no direct risk to human life, smaller shuttle / more room for payloads, 24/7 operation (split shifts behind the controls), etc.
Just a thought. Any ideas?
Re:Tangental Thought ... (Score:2)
An interesting footnote, the Soviets launched their space shuttle,Buran completely automated into orbit and back again with no problems [astronautix.com]. To Quote:
The software problem was rectified and the next attempt was set for 15 November at 06:00 (03:00 GMT). Came the morning, the weather was snow flurries with 20 m/s winds. Launch abort criteria were 15 m/s. The launch director decided to press ahead anyway. After 12 years of development everything went perfectly. Buran, with a mass of 79.4 tonnes, separated from the Block Ts core and entered a temporary orbit with a perigee of -11.2 km and apogee of 154.2 km. At apogee Burn executed a 66.6 m/s manoeuvre and entered a 251 km x 263 km orbit of the earth. In the payload bay was the 7150 kg module 37KB s/n 37071. 140 minutes into the flight retrofire was accomplished with a total delta-v of 175 m/s. 206 minutes after launch, accompanied by Igor Volk in a MiG-25 chase plane, Buran touched down at 260 km/hr in a 17 m/s crosswind at the Jubilee runway, with a 1620 m landing rollout. The completely automatic launch, orbital manoeuvre, deorbit, and precision landing of an airliner-sized spaceplane on its very first flight was an unprecedented accomplishment of which the Soviets were justifiably proud. It completely vindicated the years of exhaustive ground and flight test that had debugged the systems before they flew.
Re:Tangental Thought ... (Score:1)
Besides, if you are trying to think ahead, (and presumably scientists are) then you realize that going up and playing around at the space station and on the moon is really just something we have to do before we could even consider something as far away as Mars. If we can't make it to orbit and back safely (and I think we can, I don't consider two accidents out of so many years to really be unsafe) then we'd have no hope of going farther.
One of the most useful applications... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is probably the killer app. Being a med student myself (and having just watched Scrubs) I think the ability to have someone watching over your shoulder during an important operation would greatly assist confidence during learning surgical procedures -- especially during unusual times of the morning when the hospital is understaffed etc., and you're the house surgeon lumped with everyone walking in the door.
However, allowing dangerous operations to be undertaken in remote locations is probably not a great idea... without qualified staff physically on hand, I don't think you'd want to trust someone's life to an IP connection; otherwise, the next time some DDoS or Outlook worm strikes, servers aren't the only thing we lose.
huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Man, no wonder malpractice is out of hand.
And being rabid is no excuse.
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:5, Insightful)
Good consideration and caution. Nicest to err on the side of safety if at all possible.
Consider I am driving down some back woods road and have my accident. I am tore up bad. They run me into the hospital. No-body there is really up to doing open-heart surgery to fix where the steering column tore into me. But they do have a robot in the OR. I am bleeding to death NOW. Sure, I would love to have qualified staff on hand standing by to see to it my needs are met, but that is just not an option here. Inside of two minutes, they can probably connect to somebody in some time zone somewhere in the world who knows what to do. Wheel me in and let the guy over in Australia fix me up while I lay bleeding to death in Kansas at 2AM. If the system goes down while I am under the knife, I am really still no worse off than if I did not have the option of telesurgical care in the first place. There is maybe a 0.1% chance of system failure, but there is 99.9% chance there won't be technical problems. Its that probability I am betting my life on.
And, as noted, the whole operation, being digitized, is a movie record of what happened so it can be later reviewed for doing it better next time and training students.
Can't you imagine the simulation software we can come up with so students can run simulations until they feel comfortable with the real thing? Kinda like flight simulators for pilots, so you can crash a few times without getting all the next of kin on your tail.
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:2)
"We've got a bleeder!
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:1)
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:2)
But still, using the internet as opposed to hiring a dedicated channel for an application like this would be stupid.
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:1)
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:1)
Please consider I am not referring to elective or "convenience" surgery - there is no way I would want to go under a telesurgical knife for that. That is something I could travel in person and be in the immediate presence of my caregiver for.
I think we are talking about that hope when there was no hope. A telesurgical robot can begin work immediately during a crisis situation. The blood and life fluids are draining from the patient every second that care is delayed. Its not the best care in the world, but its the best care that can be provided under the circumstances. I do not see these machines as really being astronomical in cost once they are standardized and mass produced.. Note they will have to be standardized and mass produced if you expect interoperability amongst teams of surgeons. Kinda like a piano keyboard is going to have to be a standard if pianists worldwide are going to be able to play it.
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:2)
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:1)
You're right. In an A&E situation like that, with no other option to save you from an almost certain death, it would be irresponsible not to use a robotic surgeon if available - the principle of non maleficence ("first, do no harm").
However, my earlier post was with regard to more routine 9 till 5 procedures -- for example, it would be better to ship an otherwise healthy transplant patient who has been on a waiting list for months, to another hospital to undergo the procedure, rather than go for robotics to save the journey. Sure, it might even be more expensive, but again ethical principles would caution against taking unnecessary risks.
One thing I considered before was borderline cases like the scientist in Antarctica who got breast cancer, and had to have an airdrop of supplies before being evac'd when the weather changed. While not strictly applicable, in a borderline case would you want to hold out for transport or go for a robot? You can't really answer that generally, only on a case by case basis, but I think that this robotic tech is good if only it gives healthcare staff more options in cases where there were previously one or none (A&E for example).
And as for usage in training, I can't see it. The only real theoretical advantage over a regular videotaped operation would be the interactivity of a simulator, at which point you might as well use a model/cadaver/etc anyway. And why would you need to run a simulation over a WAN? A regular computer with a decent 3D card and whatever special input device they're using would be fine.
Re:One of the most useful applications... (Score:2, Interesting)
I get the idea nothing is going to replace the genuine cadaver ( once you get over the smell ). We have one over at our college, and when I saw it and got a whiff, I got a whole new respect for the class of pre-med students. I don't recall having a thing in my engineering training that smelled quite like that.
I would think the simulator would mostly be for training how to apply the surgical knowledge through the telesurgical robot. There would be advantages and disadvantages to using the bot. Having an assortment of tools all ready to go, with macros in place so that repetitive things such as stitching could be automated, but there is also the drawbacks of latency and use of unfamiliar tools. I noted in another post how important I feel it is to standardize the interface if we expect surgeons worldwide to be able to use it. Hopefully, as we engineers and robotocists hone our skills to produce better products, doctors hopefully will find these products more useful in the OR. The idea being to make a surgical assistant that contains all the tools a surgeon needs and can perform under the direction of the surgeon what has to be done. Hopefully, the idea is that the surgeon will find the robots to be a useful aid in the OR so that the surgeons will be comfortable working through them. When the surgeons can see through the robot's eyes and work through the robot's hands, the distance between surgeon and robot falls out of the equation. And if the robots are standardized - then it does not make any difference which robot the surgeon works through, just as I have several identical tools I use, it does not make any difference which oscilloscope I get, they all work the same. Same concept - just extended.
Because the robot is not as constrained as we humans are, I get the idea a lot of work may be done out the end of catheter-style tools so we can minimize invasive surgery. Advances in miniaturization of cameras, optics, light sources, and actuators could make for some dandy tiny yet powerful operating tools.
But then, if we have telesurgical robots, it only follows that interactive simulation would be the only way to go. Kinda like a videogame. It would make videotapes obsolete , as nobody wants to learn how to play a videogame by watching instructional tapes!
For review though, the images and the action taken by the surgeon could be stored so it could be reviewed and used for demonstration, it would probably become part of the patient record. Hopefully it would replace that long essay my surgeon had to prepare when I had surgery once. Surgeons should not have to spend their time messing with all that paper.
I definitely side with you about elective and convenience surgeries. I feel as you about the bot being primarily for when time is of the essence. I do not think we are quite there yet, and I'll hold off for the Doctor's opinion on what they feel right with. I would expect no less.
This is so yestrerday....you guys are easy (Score:4, Informative)
Earlier this fall, 68-year-old Madeleine Schaal volunteered to make medical history by allowing Jacques Marescaux and Michel Gagner to remove her gall bladder. What's so unusual about that? Only that she lay on an operating table in her hometown of Strasbourg, France, while the two doctors performing the surgery were in New York.
Re: Yesterday (Score:1)
I would imagine that they start off with low-risk operations now, as a form of practicing, as it were. No doubt they also have a backup team of surgeons ready to intervene if something threatens to go wrong. Besides, I do not expect that they will be remotely doing life-or-death or really invasive surgery for a long time, if ever.
There is also the matter of using robots and remote-controlled scalpels and the like for brain surgery; in these cases I am quite sure this is controlled by the surgeon located right there with the patient.
Latency (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Latency (Score:3, Insightful)
Read that line again...very carefully. Don't you think there could be some problems there?
Best/Worst (Score:2, Insightful)
Worst case: link gets disrupted, surgery machine goes Max Headroom on the patient -- "sl-sl-sl-sl-slice!!"
Re:Best/Worst (Score:1)
If you know only a small bit about systems design, you know that in case of any mechanical/electrical/other failure the system must fall back into a safe state. In this case the machine will retract so that the patient will not be harmed.
This is nothing knew. It has been done even in mechanical systems like train signals in the 19th century. If the cable breaks, the signal will fall and the train must stop.
Re:Best/Worst (Score:2)
Riiiight. Grow up.
a thought on security (Score:2, Insightful)
Obligitory bad joke: "So would all operations be done calling collect?"
Yay! (Score:2, Troll)
Lets hope they don't play CS (Score:2, Funny)
Murder (Score:2, Interesting)
Hack a machine being prepared for the surgery and have it send a horizontal slice 30 minutes into Mr. Gates open heart surgery.
There is no stopping this kind of crime unless the computers involved are Bios flashed, loaded from ROM media(from a locked and certified source), and tested immediately before the procedure. quite like putting all your physical devices in an autoclave.
I like tech, but I'll stick to live docs for a while, or get it done quickly before this type of crime comes to surface.
My Grandpa right now! (Score:1)
Grandpa? GRANDPA???? *BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE........
Hardly a first... (Score:2, Interesting)
Unfortunately it was drowned under the 9/11 news at the time.
Google for "Operation Lindbergh" [google.com]
Re:Hardly a first... (Score:2)
I live in Hamilton (Score:1)
i wouldn't do it (Score:4, Interesting)
I guess this is what they call.... (Score:1)
Clifford D. Simak and the net (Score:3, Interesting)
Independant robots with artificial intelligence were, of course, a major part of that invisioned future, taking over the tasks of housemaid and gardener, thus further reducing the overall level of interhuman interaction. ( Can you say automatic vacuum cleaner? I knew you could)
Truely visionary. In 1946 the American suburb and "planned community", as we know it, was still a gleam in the Levitt's eyes. Computers themselves were the crude and expensive dinosaurs of geek myth and networks didn't exist, let alone anything on the scale of the internet.
What makes all of this relevant to the article is that Simak predicted one of the side effects of this would be an increasing social isolation of humanity, to the point where we were actually unable to deal with each other face to face, or even leave our homes with any comfort. To an extent the evidence suggests that there is a certain truth to this and all of us here are well familiar with the stereotype of the net connected and sophisticated geek huddling in some dark hole somewhere (like his mother's basement) but essentially inept at face to face confrontation.
To illustrate this he chose to tell the story of a supremely gifted surgeon who allowed a friend to die, a friend with the answer to life, the universe and everything ( as yet unrevealed to the public), simply because his isolationist produced agoraphobia didn't allow him to travel to perform the needed surgery.
Simak's prescience in this novel is absolutely stunning in scope ( and the story is masterful as well, read it), but the one thing he did not forsee was that even *surgery* would one day be performed from our isolated aeries in the Himalayas ( well, to be fair, he did actually take this partially into account by placing the surgeon on Earth and the patient on Mars, thus net lag was a significant factor in the requirement that the surgeon actually be *present* on Mars, but we can already forsee ways around this problem).
Perhaps only our geometrically increasing numbers stand between us and his vision of an isolated future lived over the net.
KFG
Re:Clifford D. Simak and the net (Score:2)
You forgot to mention one key ingredient, though; the dogs! [amazon.co.uk]
Re:Clifford D. Simak and the net (Score:2)
I don't see what the problem is. (Score:1)
Canada, eh? (Score:2)
The only logical combination would be remote-sex and telerobotic masturbation...
Actually, on the point of telerobotic-sex. How about telerobotic cooking? so maybe my mom can cook me an omlete that I can't get so often, since I live some 8000 miles away? Or have famous french chefs cook you some *real* french dinner? Or, heck, have the shit on Iron Chef telerobotically cooked in your local telerobotic restaurant / community food-center, so we can taste, and not just dool over, the fine ass dishes they make on the show? I'd pay some serious cash for the food network to be broadcasting such kinds of data. I wouldn't think it's difficult to record it and have the same meal prepared when you need that exotic whatever to save your life (say, when you get the munchies, or your pregnant wife gets the cravings, etc). Still have to buy the ingredients though...
Robodoc isn't failsave (Score:2)
Robodoc is only an example, the report's main focus is that US regulations for medical procedures require more safety testing than German regulations. As a result, German clinics are a testbed for new, untested technology from abroad, sometimes with chilling results.
German clinics already use Robodoc for hip bone operations on a quasi-regular basis (the report estimates 10000 operations in Germany so far) while the same procedure still hasn't been in approved in the US by the FDA since 1993.
The report quotes critics who see a blind faith in technology, patients are told that Robodoc is far more exact than any human operator, while there are still a number of embarassing failures.
Telerobotic in space ? (Score:2)
Ok, I know that one of the main goals of ISS is to learn how to create a life-supporting space abitat ... but maybe is time to rethink about it.
Hamilton? (Score:2)
You'd think that Dr.Anvari would take whatever chance he could get to get out of Hamilton. People here know it as the armpit of Canada.
Offshore? (Score:2)
"Don't try this at home with a dial up" (Score:2)
Two things are necessary for better telerobotics: (Score:2)
If the surgeon can not feel when the instrument touches the organ or encounters an obstruction, how can he operate at all?
3D vision is important, too. Or, even better, an ability to move the camera, controlled by his head movements - ability to look at the field from different angles. Then the surgeon's brain can restore the 3D picture of the field.
"Don't try this at home" (Score:2)
CBC Radio on the operation (Score:3, Informative)
sterilization of the robot (Score:2)
Are there some kind of latex gloves it is first covered with, before the operation?
I hope this works better than the CANADARM (Score:2)
What's all this about latency? (Score:2)
Hand-eye coordination is a 100-500 millisecond feedback loop.
This waldo probably added all of 40 ms to that, if they had a clean link.
Slipped that in? (Score:2)
My primary concern with this would be latency. Of course, disconnects are worse, but latency or perhaps a bad packet could result in some big problems during delicate procedures
Re:fsfsd (Score:2)
That was hilarious! Normally I can't stand slashdot trolls because they're very stupid, but this was actually funny.
Lazy? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Don't worry about it happening on a regular basis tho...by the time tele-surgery gains momentum, it will be fully robotic and 99% non-invasive.
Re:Confidential (Score:2)
Damn straight. They have to get the patients concent first! And we all know that never happened!
Re:Oh really (Score:2)
No, but we do have "Colour TV".