Industrial robot hones virtual autopsies - New Scientist
THE small industrial robot that dominates the room is in many ways much like any other. A robotic arm smoothly wields grippers and probes - always accurate and never tired. But rather than working on cars or computers, this robot is processing human corpses.
A team of forensic pathologists at the University of Bern in Switzerland reckon it could make autopsies more accurate and also less distressing for families.
The researchers are already pioneers of virtual autopsies, or "virtopsies", which use non-invasive imaging of a body inside and out rather than the radical post-mortem surgery typically used to determine cause of death.
Now they are using a robot, dubbed Virtibot, to carry out parts of that process, making it more reliable - and standardised.
Their virtopsies combine 3D imaging of a body's surface with a CT scan of its interior anatomy. The result is a faithful, high-resolution virtual double of the corpse (see diagram). This double can be used to accurately determine what killed someone. And it's a more tactful approach: only needle biopsies are used to sample tissues, leaving a body essentially undamaged.
This virtual body-double can be used to accurately determine what killed a person "Currently, organs are taken out and sliced for analysis of tumours and lesions, but if something is overlooked you have no chance of seeing it again," says team member Lars Ebert. "All you have afterwards is a huge pile of organ slices."
By automating virtopsies, he now hopes to free the post-mortem from the influence of the unavoidable human failings of pathologists, which can affect conclusions about cause of death.
"Too much of an investigator's autopsy results depend on their ability to describe in a report what they see - and they may overlook things," says Ebert. "We want to make the whole procedure more objective and generate digitally stored data that can be re-examined 20 or 30 years later."
THE small industrial robot that dominates the room is in many ways much like any other. A robotic arm smoothly wields grippers and probes - always accurate and never tired. But rather than working on cars or computers, this robot is processing human corpses.
A team of forensic pathologists at the University of Bern in Switzerland reckon it could make autopsies more accurate and also less distressing for families.
The researchers are already pioneers of virtual autopsies, or "virtopsies", which use non-invasive imaging of a body inside and out rather than the radical post-mortem surgery typically used to determine cause of death.
Now they are using a robot, dubbed Virtibot, to carry out parts of that process, making it more reliable - and standardised.
Their virtopsies combine 3D imaging of a body's surface with a CT scan of its interior anatomy. The result is a faithful, high-resolution virtual double of the corpse (see diagram). This double can be used to accurately determine what killed someone. And it's a more tactful approach: only needle biopsies are used to sample tissues, leaving a body essentially undamaged.
This virtual body-double can be used to accurately determine what killed a person "Currently, organs are taken out and sliced for analysis of tumours and lesions, but if something is overlooked you have no chance of seeing it again," says team member Lars Ebert. "All you have afterwards is a huge pile of organ slices."
By automating virtopsies, he now hopes to free the post-mortem from the influence of the unavoidable human failings of pathologists, which can affect conclusions about cause of death.
"Too much of an investigator's autopsy results depend on their ability to describe in a report what they see - and they may overlook things," says Ebert. "We want to make the whole procedure more objective and generate digitally stored data that can be re-examined 20 or 30 years later."
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