Minimally invasive surgery includes a number of advanced surgical techniques which compared with conventional techniques are less agressive to the patient, allowing for faster recovery. As these procedures are complex, computational tools as surgical simulators are being used in the process of training new surgeons and training old surgeons in new techniques.
Laparoscopy is one of such minimally invasive techniques. This video is a walkthrough over the process of creating a laparoscopic surgery simulator. Image processing, geometric modeling, graphics rendering, physics-based deformation and human-computer interaction with force feedback are steps in the process. This is an example of video-games getting into serious business.
The simulator is coded in C++ with OpenGL and shaders in GLSL. Two SensAble Phantom Omnis were used for interaction. All capture was made in real time with frames recorded directly from the simulator.