Development of AR Surgical Navigation Systems for Multiple Surgical Regions.

The purpose of our research is to develop surgical navigation systems to enhance surgical safety. Our systems make use of augmented reality technology to superimpose, on the surgery screen on a real time basis, patients' organ models reconstructed in 3D from their X-ray CT data taken before surgery. By doing so, the systems display anatomical risk materials, tumors and blood vessels which surgeons cannot see with their naked eyes.

Formulation of wire control mechanism for surgical robot to create virtual reality environment aimed at conducting surgery inside the body.

We here report on the process of developing a surgical robot that can conduct operation "going inside the body without spreading the operational region". The endoscopic robot that we are developing now has a flexible cylindrical body with functions of a set of human arms at the tip and also with vision and haptic sense functions. We evaluated necessary technology factor to complete this robot into categories such as, transmission of energy, adaptation to insides of the body.

Development of a navigation function for an endosocopic robot surgery system.

An endoscopic robot system that we reported at MMVR11 is able to perform various surgical procedures in the stomach by using two manipulators. However, it is difficult for surgeons to recognize the 3D location and the direction of the endoscope's tip in the abdominal region during robotic surgery. In this research, we have developed a navigation function that enables image-guided surgery by superimposing the patient's abdominal organ structure onto the endoscopic image.

Changes of blood volume distribution by postural changes in rats.

During a space flight the human body responds to many different gravities. The launching of the rocket, the weightlessness, the re-entry of the spacecraft, and other factors influence the astronaut's body. The fluid shifts and the effect on the cardiovascular system arising from these gravitational changes have been frequently studied in space medicine by using body tilting, lower body negative pressure (LBNP) and centrifugal accelerators.