Exploratory Haptics Trainer: SPRING
SPRING is a software platform for developing surgical simulation applications, initially developed by Dr. Kevin Montgomery of the National Biocomputation Center in 1999. The set of networked, cooperating applications in SPRING offer an interactive 3-D world of tissue and tool models, using standard data formats, and with support for both rigid and deformable models with customized physical tissue parameters.
We have enhanced the software of SPRING while making it more accessible to potential learners and developers. Our major activities have included updating the code base and development environments for use with modern software engineering tools, improved algorithms, and resolution of many software problems. The software is networked, cross-platform, and open source, with a web site, availability on SourceForge, and extensive documentation. SPRING has been presented at workshops and conferences as a development platform on Open Source Surgical Simulation. Partly as a result of these efforts, SPRING is now in use as a research tool and simulator development platform at multiple university sites around the world. We intend that improved availability and support will allow computer science groups and medical schools to design and develop simulation applications for medical education and training.
A series of haptic experiments have been hosted on SPRING, including comparison between actual and perceived stiffnesses of virtual membranes, perceptual experiments on the range of haptic feedback that people can detect, and the role of network parameters on task-oriented activities performed by subjects with a variety of medical experience and training.
Watch Craig Cornelius, the developer, discuss SPRING.
Short segment (30 seconds) Full clip (3 minutes)