Effect of video streaming delay on telemedicine based on the surgical cockpit system

Abstract

Live video streaming technology is indispensable for collaboration on telemedicine. The live video streaming technology plays important roles for tele-operation and tele-communication between a tele-operating console room and a remote operating room. However, network transmission delay is unavoidable problem in live video streaming technology. The main theme of the research is to evaluate effect of live video streaming delay for robot drivability and mental effect of given view in telesurgery. Target-pointing task was performed via tele-operating master-slave manipulator in the Surgical Cockpit System. The subjects were 27 of 5th grade medical students that had no experience of tele-robot manipulation. Drivability of a robot was measured by physically and sensory evaluation. Mental effect of given view was measured by sensory evaluation. Video-streaming delay declined accuracy of robot motion control and reduced speed of tele-robot operation. The subjects felt incongruous sense of given view, difficulty of robot control, and uneasiness of spatial recognition under video delayed condition. The video presentation with approximately 0.5 seconds of live video streaming delay causes stresses and strains of a tele-operating surgeon for delicate manipulation of a tele-surgery robot.