270 Virtual Reality in Medicine
270 医学中的虚拟现实
Richard Satava, program manager for advanced medical technologies, has been a driving force in bringing virtual reality to medicine, where computers create a "virtual" or simulated environment for surgeons and other medical practitioners.
理查德·萨塔瓦是一名高级医学技术的项目经理，他在把虚拟现实引入医学方面起到了推动作用，在这项技术中，计算机会为外科大夫和其他从医人员创造出一个“虚拟的。或者是模拟的环境。
"With virtual reality we'll be able to put a surgeon in every trench," said Satava. He envisaged a time when soldiers who are wounded fighting overseas are put in mobile surgical units equipped with computers.
“拥有了虚拟现实，我们就可以在每一道战壕里配备一名外科医生。” 萨塔瓦说。他设想着能有一天，海外作战的战士受伤后，能被送往安装有计算机的流动外科医疗单位进行治疗。
The computers would transmit images of the soldiers to surgeons back in the U.S. The surgeons would look at the soldier through virtual reality helmets that contain a small screen displaying the image of the wound. The doctors would guide robotic instruments in the battlefield mobile surgical unit that operate on the soldier.
计算机把士兵们的图像传回给美国的外科医生，外科医生将通过虚拟现实头盔给士兵做检查，头盔上有一个可以呈现伤口图像的小屏幕，这样医生们就可以操控战地流动医疗单位的机器人设备对战士实施手术。
Although Satava's vision may be years away from standard operating procedure, scientists are progressing toward virtual reality surgery. Engineers at an international organization in California are developing a tele-operating device. As surgeons watch a three-dimensional image of the surgery, they move instruments that are connected to a computer, which passes their movements to robotic instruments that perform the surgery. The computer provides, feedback to the surgeon on force, textures, and sound.
虽然萨塔瓦的设想要成为标准的手术配置可能还需要好多年，可是，科学家们正在朝着虚拟现实外科努力。在加利福尼亚的一个国际组织里，工程师们正在开发一种电视操控设备。外科医生一边观察外科手术的三维图像，一边移动与一台计算机连接着的器械，那合计算机会把这些动作传递给实施手术的机器人器械。计算机会即时向医生提供有关力度，结构和声音的反馈信息。
These technological wonders may not yet be part of the community hospital setting but increasingly some of the machinery is finding its way into civilian medicine. At Wayne State University Medical School, surgeon Lucia Zamorano takes images of the brain from computerized scans and uses a computer program to produce a 3-D image. She can then maneuver the 3-D image on the computer screen to map the shortest, least invasive surgical path to the rumor. Zamorano is also using technology that attaches a probe to surgical instruments so that she can track their positions. While cutting away a tumor deep in the brain, she watches the movement of her surgical tools in a computer graphics image of the patient's brain taken before surgery.
这些技术上的奇迹可能还没有成为社区医院的一部分，但是，其中的一些器械正在越来越多地被用于民用医学，在韦因州立大学医学院，外科医生露茜娅·扎莫拉诺通过计算机扫描获取大脑图像，并用计算机程序生成一个三维图像，然后，她就可以在计算机屏幕上通过三维图像找到可以通向肿瘤的最短的，侵害最少的外科路径。扎莫拉诺还使用一种把探针和外科手术器连接起来的技术来跟踪这些器械的位置。在切除大脑深处的肿瘤时，她就可以观察到她的外科手术器械在病人大脑的计算机图像上的移动情况——这张大脑计算机图像可以在手术前就预先做好。
During these procedures -- operations that are done through small cuts in the body in which a miniature camera and surgical tools are maneuvered -- surgeons are wearing 3-D glasses for a better view. And they are commanding robot surgeons to cut away tissue more accurately than human surgeons can.
在这这些过程中——即操作微型摄像头和手术器械通过身体上的小切口动手术的过程中，外科医生会戴着三维镜以获得更好地视觉。他们还指挥机器人外科医生来切除组织，这些机器人比人类外科医生做得更精确。
Satava says, "We are in the midst of a fundamental change in the field of medicine."
萨塔瓦说：“我们正在医学领域的根本变革之中。”