Attention-Aware Robotic Laparoscope Based on Fuzzy Interpretation of Eye-Gaze Patterns

Abstract

Laparoscopic robots have been widely adopted in modern medical practice. However, explicitly interacting with these robots may increase the physical and cognitive load on the surgeon. An attention-aware robotic laparoscope system has been developed to free the surgeon from the technical limitations of visualization through the laparoscope. This system can implicitly recognize the surgeon's visual attention by interpreting the surgeon's natural eye movements using fuzzy logic and then automatically steer the laparoscope to focus on that viewing target. Experimental results show that this system can make the surgeon–robot interaction more effective, intuitive, and has the potential to make the execution of the surgery smoother and faster.