Doctors (both surgeons and non-surgeons) have long longed (that came out weird) for a technological breakthrough that could help them in better judging the spatial differences between various body parts. A better understanding of the same would allow them to vary force depending upon the type of object(after all, you wouldn’t want a doctor to squeeze life of your lungs literally.)
A group of researchers have tried to solve this problem. A breakthrough millimeter-sized sensor, designed by them, is dexterous enough to recreate a number of our tactile talents, such as force and position of contact, softness of a grasped object, and slippage.
This latest technology exploits polystyrene beams that bend when they come across a soft surface. This innovation can facilitate doctors to execute minimally invasive surgery or MIS by including supplementary force-feedback information from the subject and for which surgeons mostly rely on visual data transmitted from an endoscope at present.
The miniature sensors could also be micromachined - a type of integrated circuit manufacture - and can be more simple and economical to produce for medical uses. The upcoming stages in their evolution encompass miniaturization, amalgamation of these sensors with MIS tools, and animal tissue testing.
Via: Engadget
