Project description

The prosthetic fitting is currently a manual procedure based on the skills and knowledge of the orthopaedic technician. Based on the manually recorded tissue structure, a plaster cast is physically modelled to create the basis for the socket geometry. Due to the subjective recording of the tissue condition, repeated adjustments of the socket, the crucial interface between the body and the prosthesis, may be necessary or incorrect fittings may occur. In addition to an inconsistent standard of care, the documentation of therapy is hampered by a lack of quantifiable data and prevents the continuous exchange of data in this interdisciplinary field between surgeons, orthopaedic technicians and therapists.

In the “HapticScan” project, the quantifiable recording of tissue data is therefore fused with data from a surface scan in order to create a holistic information basis for fitting and also to enable small companies to provide prosthetic fitting, for example, via contract manufacturing on the basis of this data basis.

The new haptic scanning system developed in the project is intended to quantify and digitally record the palpation (examination by palpation) previously carried out manually by the orthopaedic technician. For this purpose, the sensor data of an ultrasound-based measuring method will be fused with exact localisation data to enable integration into surface scanning systems available on the market