Creation of static and dynamic models of instruments for a virtual reality trainer for laparoscopic surgery

There is a need for a virtual reality trainer for Laparoscopic Surgery on which medical interns may learn the art before they may begin practicing on real patients. Existing methods, with the use of rubber models have several obvious disadvantages. Therefore, a virtual reality simulator for laparoscopic surgery is being developed at the Virtual Environment Lab at the University of Texas at Arlington. This simulator will require several 3D models in its virtual scene. They mainly comprise of instruments used by the surgeon during the course of a surgery. Several of these instruments also have a dynamic property i.e. movable tool tips which need to be controlled by the user. In order to maintain real time constraints and compatibility with the other modules of this project, a unique approach is required to perform this task. We have examined the requirement of these 3D models and created and imported them into the world of Virtual Surgery.