Novel virtual reality based training system for fine motor skills: Towards developing a robotic surgery training system.

Background: Training surgeons to use surgical robots are becoming part of surgical training curricula. We propose a novel method of training fine-motor skills such as Microscopic Selection Task (MST) for robot-assisted surgery using virtual reality (VR) with objective quantification of performance. We also introduce vibrotactile feedback (VTFB) to study its impact on training performance.

Coding source localization through inter-spike delay: modelling a cluster of Pacinian Corpuscles using time-division multiplexing approach.

The Pacinian Corpuscle (PC) is the most sensitive mechanoreceptor in the human body found in clusters of two or three. We extended our previous model of an isolated-PC to a cluster-PC focussing on relative spike delay and displacement threshold for understanding how the stimulus location is coded. In our model, two PCs with Gaussian overlapping receptive fields are arranged beneath the skin model.