The Haptic Lens Project - Spring 2002

Sponsored by Microsoft Research
Faculty Coach: Dr. Dennis Dunn

This section details what the Haptic Lens is used for, how the idea was first conceived, previous work, and the future of the project.

What is a Haptic Lens?

Haptic Lens - the black part is the rubber membrane. Behind it is the light source. On the left is the webcam.

The Haptic Lens comprises of a flexible membrane, filled with a fluid, and a thick polycarbonate lens with a USB camera behind it. A webcam looks down through the lens and all of this is enclosed within a prototyped housing with a light source. The device can sense the hardness of a person's skin through the flexible membrane and includes a software program for receiving a range image from the camera. These images are generated based on the depth the fluid that is displaced when the Haptic lens is applied to an object. This software displays grayscale images from the lens' camera and a GUI (Graphical User Interface) program can be used to manipulate them for better viewing. The GUI provides functions such as variable lighting and rotation of a 3D image. However, the state of the software does not include enough functions to be suitable for practical use.

The Haptic lens system is intended to be used primarily in a clinical setting. Physicians will use the Haptic lens system on a patient with a subcutaneous abnormality, such as a cyst, to collect quantifiable data and produce a range image. Normally, the doctor will examine the cyst with the fingers and inspect the area in question through the sense of touch. However, when using this method the assessment of the cyst's qualities such as size, shape, area, and volume can vary between physicians. The Haptic lens will eliminate the subjective analysis of physical palpation examinations and give more accurate results, yet is much cheaper to implement than an MRI or similar techniques. Doctors will also be able to objectively measure any progress over time by comparing past images and share the images among physicians for further research. Other benefits of the Haptic lens system include portability and ease of use.

Conception

The Haptic Lens was invented by Mike Sinclair in 1996 while working with the Interactive Media Technology Center of the Georgia Institute of Technology. He now works for Microsoft Research and has been a helpful mentor to us for this project. The software that our team worked with was originally developed by Andrew Quay and Peter Presti of IMTC.

Previous PSU Teams

The CDS Team's stand uses a threaded rod, which twists and damages the rubber membrane.

The spring 2001 PSU team build a lens with a 6 inch diameter and integrated a pressure sensor in their design. Although this sensor would have been very useful in our project, the camera in their lens requires a computer with an ISA slot, which we didn't have. We instead chose to use Mike Sinclair's smaller prototype.

The fall 2001 PSU team made the housing for the lens that we used this semester. They also built a stand so that the lens may be calibrated for consistency. However, this stand damaged the membrane so we designed and built a new one.

The Future

The Haptic Lens is still far from being used in the medical field. It is hard for a student group to become familiarized with all the equipment in the system and make many improvements within the span of one semester. Before a doctor can use this equipment both the hardware and software need to be more user friendly. Ideally, the doctor will be able to capture an image with the push of a button and be able to assess the patient's condition quickly.