Augmented vision for a haptic dental simulator/trainer

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Clinical training and skill assessment of dental students/trainees face challenges as the students admitted to dental schools increase dramatically in numbers while the number of instructors is still limited. Hence, dental schools utilize single-trainer/multiple-trainee pedagogical settings. Classic dental training systems are expensive, limited to a small number of clinical scenarios, lack repetitiveness, and do not keep track of a student's progress for case rehearsal. Our industrial partner Tactile Robotics is developing a new system - Smart DenTool - for training and assessment of hygiene/dental students or international dental graduates. This is primarily due to the increasing demand for the cost- and time-effectiveness of training and assessment in dental schools so that students can progress faster and instructors can track the students' progress efficiently. The solution under development at Tactile Robotics encompasses a physical dental simulator for the instructor, which informs a cyber-physical simulator for the student. Tactile Robotics has faced the problem that the cyber-physical simulator needs to include an augmented-reality (AR) display for enhanced realism and richness of the students' experience. We are able to supply the AR technology needed by the company. In AR, virtual objects such as computer-generated teeth models are integrated into the physical environment in the user's workspace. Our techniques will allow the student to see digital recreations of the instructor's tool and the oral cavity through AR in a geometrically-correct position and orientation with respect to the student's tool. For implementing AR, projection mapping will be utilized to project digitally constructed objects (i.e., a reconstructed model of the oral cavity) onto the real-world environment. The complete dental training system will comprise a projector, a virtual-reality engine to create the virtual environment, an instrumented tool for the instructor, a tool equipped with vibrotactile actuators and a sensory system for the student, and a depth sensor to implement head tracking in 3D scenarios.