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Industrial robot hones virtual autopsies
TECHNOLOGY
Industrial robot hones virtual autopsies Autopsies are messy, upsetting for the family, and you only get one chance to see the body whole. “Virtual autopsies” tackle all three problems at once
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 noninvasive imaging of a body inside and out rather than the radical post-mortem surgery typically
Anatomy of a virtopsy Combining robotics and sophisticated scanning techniques makes for an accurate way to determine cause of death without cutting up the corpse
BODY BODY SURFACE
BODY INTERIOR
Robot captures 3D surface details using stereo cameras
Automated CT scan
Bruises, wounds and identifying marks recorded
Disease or damage to bones, soft tissue and organs recorded
DATA Complete (internal and external) 3D model of body generated
Robot performs image-guided needle biopsy Tissue sample analysis recorded
CAUSE OF DEATH DETERMINED Models and data stored for future reference 22 | NewScientist | 24 October 2009
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, highresolution virtual double of the corpse (see diagram). This double can be used to accurately scans. It then captures a 3D colour determine what killed someone. model of the body to a resolution And it’s a more tactful approach: of just 0.02 millimetres, using only needle biopsies are used to stereoscopic cameras and a sample tissues, leaving a body projector that casts a mesh pattern essentially undamaged. onto the body (see picture, above). “Currently, organs are taken out This model can be twisted and and sliced for analysis of tumours turned on a computer screen, and lesions, but if something is revealing injuries, tattoos and overlooked you have no chance of other identifying marks in detail. seeing it again,” says team member Being able to process those Lars Ebert. “All you have afterwards traces digitally is a boon. In one is a huge pile of organ slices.” case, recording the pattern of a car By automating virtopsies, fender stamped onto a person’s he now hopes to free the postskin helped reconstruct the mortem from the influence of the accident that killed them. unavoidable human failings of “This virtual body-double pathologists, which can affect conclusions about cause of death. can be used to accurately determine what killed “Too much of an investigator’s a person” autopsy results depend on their ability to describe in a report what they see – and they may Furthermore, scanning without overlook things,” says Ebert. “We robot assistance is a cumbersome want to make the whole procedure process in which someone must more objective and generate carefully position an unwieldy digitally stored data that can be tripod at different points around re-examined 20 or 30 years later.” the body. Virtibot, able to control The current virtopsy procedure its movements with great begins with a surface scan of the precision, simply glides over the body. When a corpse is placed on body to build up the 3D picture. the table in front of it, the robot After the surface scan, the table places markers on the skin that on which the body lies slides help calibrate the surface scan and through a CT scanner, which takes match it up with later internal high-resolution X-ray slices of the UNIVERSITY OF BERN
Paul Marks
For daily technology stories, visit www.NewScientist.com/technology
Stings from the sea give a pain-free kick to skin cream
needed. That might be a sample of fluid from the lungs of a victim of drowning, or a piece of liver to look for signs of disease or toxins. Such biopsies normally require someone to expose their hand to the scanner’s X-rays. A robot has no such worries. And, like the robots used in surgery on the living, it is more than capable of using small tools with great precision. Despite its impressive dexterity, Virtibot wasn’t built with surgery in mind. Robots used for precision surgery on the living must let surgeons maintain absolute control at all times, for safety reasons. Once given a task, Virtibot can
In 19 cases, 3D surface scans were used to make virtual reconstructions of the attack or accident accurate enough to be admissible in the Swiss courts. However, the president of the UK’s Royal College of Pathologists, Peter Furness, says that much longer term comparisons of virtopsies with conventional procedures are still needed. “The circumstances where this might be valuable are not well defined, the reliability of the approach is unclear and the cost can be considerable,” he says, adding that studies to work out just when a conventional autopsy is essential are under way. ■
Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells. In firing, they act like tiny pumps, drawing in more of the drug from the cream and sending it through the needle. Each “needle” is just a few micrometres thick, making the injection painless. One square centimetre of creamcoated skin can contain as many as a million tiny needles, of which onethird will be pointing the right way to fire their needles into the skin. Last week, NanoCyte concluded
“Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells, which send the drug through the needle” phase II clinical trials in the US of a cream containing lidocaine, a local anaesthetic used by dentists. The firm hopes to launch cosmetics, such as “anti-ageing” treatments, in 2010. Preliminary work with mice suggests anemone stings can also inject insulin, says Daniely. “It is exciting that this approach has reached phase II trials,” says Mark Prausnitz, a drug delivery expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Pharmaceutical applications are more strictly regulated than cosmetic ones, though, he points out. Colin Barras ■
NANOCYTE
MIXING stinging cells from sea anemones into skin cream sounds like a bad practical joke. But anaesthetic cream that uses this novel approach to painlessly inject a painkiller is moving through clinical trials. Anemone stings could also offer needle-free insulin to diabetics. The stinging cells, or cnidocysts, of sea anemones, jellyfish and other cnidarians work like tiny harpoons when triggered by physical contact. They shoot out a hollow thread that delivers poison into the unfortunate victim through a sharp tip. NanoCyte, based in Or Akiva, Israel, uses stings “harvested” from tank-Scanning, not scratching, the surface-) dwelling Aiptasia diaphana sea anemones, native to the Red and entire body, providing a way to Mediterranean seas. The firm won’t be left largely to its own devices. see damage or disease in organs “These people are already dead, say how, but it can provoke the anemones into releasing filaments or bones. In the case of a car-crash so there is no way we can injure stuffed with stinging cells, which can victim, being able to see the them further,” says Ebert. “That be gathered without harming the patterns of breakage, and damage means we can use a cheaper animals. “It’s a bit like milking a cow,” to bones, can also help work out industrial robot, drawn from says Yaron Daniely, CEO of NanoCyte. exactly what happened. the automobile industry.” The stinging cells are then Finally, after analysis of the So far, Virtibot has aided processed to denature and extract 3D model and the internal and virtopsies in 52 real cases, their toxic proteins. That, and the fact external scans, a needle biopsy including 26 road deaths, 10 by that the species is not toxic to humans, can be used to gather samples impacts from a blunt object, six makes them safe, says Daniely. from inside the body if further knifings, five shootings, and two The stinging cells are carefully information is required. Wielding throttlings (The International mixed into a cream containing the a fine needle, the system uses live Journal of Medical Robotics and drug to be injected into the skin, CT-scan images to grab a biopsy Computer Assisted Surgery, some of which diffuses into the cells. sample from precisely where it is DOI: 10.1002/rcs.285).
–Try milking that– 24 October 2009 | NewScientist | 23
Industrial robot hones virtual autopsies Autopsies are messy, upsetting for the family, and you only get one chance to see the body whole. “Virtual autopsies” tackle all three problems at once
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 noninvasive imaging of a body inside and out rather than the radical post-mortem surgery typically
Anatomy of a virtopsy Combining robotics and sophisticated scanning techniques makes for an accurate way to determine cause of death without cutting up the corpse
BODY BODY SURFACE
BODY INTERIOR
Robot captures 3D surface details using stereo cameras
Automated CT scan
Bruises, wounds and identifying marks recorded
Disease or damage to bones, soft tissue and organs recorded
DATA Complete (internal and external) 3D model of body generated
Robot performs image-guided needle biopsy Tissue sample analysis recorded
CAUSE OF DEATH DETERMINED Models and data stored for future reference 22 | NewScientist | 24 October 2009
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, highresolution virtual double of the corpse (see diagram). This double can be used to accurately scans. It then captures a 3D colour determine what killed someone. model of the body to a resolution And it’s a more tactful approach: of just 0.02 millimetres, using only needle biopsies are used to stereoscopic cameras and a sample tissues, leaving a body projector that casts a mesh pattern essentially undamaged. onto the body (see picture, above). “Currently, organs are taken out This model can be twisted and and sliced for analysis of tumours turned on a computer screen, and lesions, but if something is revealing injuries, tattoos and overlooked you have no chance of other identifying marks in detail. seeing it again,” says team member Being able to process those Lars Ebert. “All you have afterwards traces digitally is a boon. In one is a huge pile of organ slices.” case, recording the pattern of a car By automating virtopsies, fender stamped onto a person’s he now hopes to free the postskin helped reconstruct the mortem from the influence of the accident that killed them. unavoidable human failings of “This virtual body-double pathologists, which can affect conclusions about cause of death. can be used to accurately determine what killed “Too much of an investigator’s a person” autopsy results depend on their ability to describe in a report what they see – and they may Furthermore, scanning without overlook things,” says Ebert. “We robot assistance is a cumbersome want to make the whole procedure process in which someone must more objective and generate carefully position an unwieldy digitally stored data that can be tripod at different points around re-examined 20 or 30 years later.” the body. Virtibot, able to control The current virtopsy procedure its movements with great begins with a surface scan of the precision, simply glides over the body. When a corpse is placed on body to build up the 3D picture. the table in front of it, the robot After the surface scan, the table places markers on the skin that on which the body lies slides help calibrate the surface scan and through a CT scanner, which takes match it up with later internal high-resolution X-ray slices of the UNIVERSITY OF BERN
Paul Marks
For daily technology stories, visit www.NewScientist.com/technology
Stings from the sea give a pain-free kick to skin cream
needed. That might be a sample of fluid from the lungs of a victim of drowning, or a piece of liver to look for signs of disease or toxins. Such biopsies normally require someone to expose their hand to the scanner’s X-rays. A robot has no such worries. And, like the robots used in surgery on the living, it is more than capable of using small tools with great precision. Despite its impressive dexterity, Virtibot wasn’t built with surgery in mind. Robots used for precision surgery on the living must let surgeons maintain absolute control at all times, for safety reasons. Once given a task, Virtibot can
In 19 cases, 3D surface scans were used to make virtual reconstructions of the attack or accident accurate enough to be admissible in the Swiss courts. However, the president of the UK’s Royal College of Pathologists, Peter Furness, says that much longer term comparisons of virtopsies with conventional procedures are still needed. “The circumstances where this might be valuable are not well defined, the reliability of the approach is unclear and the cost can be considerable,” he says, adding that studies to work out just when a conventional autopsy is essential are under way. ■
Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells. In firing, they act like tiny pumps, drawing in more of the drug from the cream and sending it through the needle. Each “needle” is just a few micrometres thick, making the injection painless. One square centimetre of creamcoated skin can contain as many as a million tiny needles, of which onethird will be pointing the right way to fire their needles into the skin. Last week, NanoCyte concluded
“Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells, which send the drug through the needle” phase II clinical trials in the US of a cream containing lidocaine, a local anaesthetic used by dentists. The firm hopes to launch cosmetics, such as “anti-ageing” treatments, in 2010. Preliminary work with mice suggests anemone stings can also inject insulin, says Daniely. “It is exciting that this approach has reached phase II trials,” says Mark Prausnitz, a drug delivery expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Pharmaceutical applications are more strictly regulated than cosmetic ones, though, he points out. Colin Barras ■
NANOCYTE
MIXING stinging cells from sea anemones into skin cream sounds like a bad practical joke. But anaesthetic cream that uses this novel approach to painlessly inject a painkiller is moving through clinical trials. Anemone stings could also offer needle-free insulin to diabetics. The stinging cells, or cnidocysts, of sea anemones, jellyfish and other cnidarians work like tiny harpoons when triggered by physical contact. They shoot out a hollow thread that delivers poison into the unfortunate victim through a sharp tip. NanoCyte, based in Or Akiva, Israel, uses stings “harvested” from tank-Scanning, not scratching, the surface-) dwelling Aiptasia diaphana sea anemones, native to the Red and entire body, providing a way to Mediterranean seas. The firm won’t be left largely to its own devices. see damage or disease in organs “These people are already dead, say how, but it can provoke the anemones into releasing filaments or bones. In the case of a car-crash so there is no way we can injure stuffed with stinging cells, which can victim, being able to see the them further,” says Ebert. “That be gathered without harming the patterns of breakage, and damage means we can use a cheaper animals. “It’s a bit like milking a cow,” to bones, can also help work out industrial robot, drawn from says Yaron Daniely, CEO of NanoCyte. exactly what happened. the automobile industry.” The stinging cells are then Finally, after analysis of the So far, Virtibot has aided processed to denature and extract 3D model and the internal and virtopsies in 52 real cases, their toxic proteins. That, and the fact external scans, a needle biopsy including 26 road deaths, 10 by that the species is not toxic to humans, can be used to gather samples impacts from a blunt object, six makes them safe, says Daniely. from inside the body if further knifings, five shootings, and two The stinging cells are carefully information is required. Wielding throttlings (The International mixed into a cream containing the a fine needle, the system uses live Journal of Medical Robotics and drug to be injected into the skin, CT-scan images to grab a biopsy Computer Assisted Surgery, some of which diffuses into the cells. sample from precisely where it is DOI: 10.1002/rcs.285).
–Try milking that– 24 October 2009 | NewScientist | 23