Multimodal Touchless Human Machine Interface for an IEEE 11073 SDC Interconnected Surgical Workstation

This paper examines the integration of a multimodal control system in an open interconnected operation room according to IEEE 11073 SDC (Service-oriented Device Connectivity) communication standard. The process design should maximize the usability of the contactless interaction with medical devices of different manufacturers, for example by integrating a user guidance system. It is investigated whether the introduction of hierarchical levels of interaction and the possibility to use natural input modalities can create a safe input method for the operating room. The control system is evaluated by surgeons in interaction-centered usability tests including a follow-up questionnaire. The results show that especially the user guidance system and the direct feedback through the interface facilitate the learning and use of the control system. The presented system prevents the adjustment of parameters even in case of faulty detection and makes the fault clearly visible to the users, so that they could take countermeasures independently and successfully in the user test without prior experience with the interaction system. While gesture and voice recognition technology were not robust enough for application in the operation room, the concepts for the output modality presented in this paper can be applied to touchless interaction systems in the future to improve usability and safety.