The AO Foundation, a medically-led, non-profit organization based in Davos, is the world's leading organization for education, innovation and research in the surgical treatment of trauma and musculoskeletal disorders. One of its innovations is a new training concept called DEHST (Digitally Enhanced, Hands-on Surgical Training). It is designed for the practice of a surgeon's basic psychomotor skills and is based on a mixed reality setup.
An important component of this setup is the software, which records the spatial position of real objects (such as surgical instruments, drills, artificial bone models and the model of an X-ray machine) and generates realistic X-ray images from them. This enables an extended training spectrum and a new type of user experience. In addition, personalized performance indicators are collected, which are transferred to the Cloud via smartphone and QR codes and can be used for comprehensive training analysis.
This software was developed at the AO Research Institute Davos as a MATLAB prototype, which had to be rewritten and expanded as a C++/C# native application as part of product development. One of the key competencies was the ray tracing calculation to simulate X-ray images.
The Solcept specialists for image processing and Windows quickly created a first version of the software, which can be continuously expanded with new training scenarios. This provides AO Foundation with a modular software solution which, together with the mechanical training setup, enables mobile, cost-efficient and realistic training that improves the quality of surgeon training.
Project Scope
- Specification & Planning
- Implementation
- Software Development
Expertise and Technologies
The project used Windows 10/ 11 technologies with C#, such as Modern Windows Application, WinUI3, Microsoft Store, .NET, QR Codes, as well as image processing technologies with C++, such as OpenCV for 2D and ITK for 3D. In addition to expertise in 2- and 3-dimensional image processing, ToF (Time-of-Flight) sensors, IMU (Inertial Measurement Units) and high-resolution cameras were also used. And of course MATLAB for simulations and tests.
Are you looking for a fast implementation of your idea? Send me an email!
