Medical equipment within surgical environments has to be kept sterilized, often even if it doesn’t come in contact with the patients. That’s because clinicians move things and push buttons with the same hands that touch the patients. Being able to move and control devices without making contact with patients can bring a new level of efficiency to operating rooms if less equipment has to be sterilized or wrapped in plastic sheeting. A team at Marquette University, in association with Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and GE Healthcare Global Design, have developed a gestural control system that allows users to steer equipment without making any contact with it.
Here’s a video demo of the system that uses camera-embedded glasses to recognize objects and interact with them:
