Supply and Installation of Haptic Simulators to the University of Birmingham

Description

Digital Dentistry is a catch-all term to describe the use of digital technology within both the clinical and educational settings. This strategy focuses of the use of digital technologies to enhance education for students, rather than the provision of clinical dentistry for their patients. The school of Dentistry wishes to procure 6 standalone Haptic Simulators that provide an immersive, virtual reality experience to operators including simulated handpieces, probing and local anaesthetic delivery. The simulators will need to link to scanners so the user can set up bespoke tasks, or they can be pre-loaded with a stock of simulation exercises. Software development and updating of the bank of procedures must be included. Haptics have not previously been used at the School of Dentistry. We are looking for a practical setup where the operator uses two "handpieces" which can be tailored to be a mirror and a handpiece, a mirror and a probe etc. appropriate to the clinical scenario. The simulator must provide a good level of tactile feedback, particularly in relation to hard and soft tissues. This project may be funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or; - European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) or; Page 4 to 8 - Research Councils UK (RCUK), the strategic partnership of the UK's seven Research Councils. Lot 1: The University of Birmingham invites tenders to help the School of Dentistry enhance their Digital Dentistry teaching and learning experience. We are looking to purchase six haptic machines: These are standalone units that will provide an immersive, virtual reality experience to operators including simulated handpieces, probing and local anaesthetic delivery. Ideally these must be linked to scanners so the user can set up bespoke tasks, or they can be pre-loaded with a stock of simulation exercises. Software development and updating of the bank of procedures must be included. The practical setup is that the operator uses two "handpieces" which can be tailored to be a mirror and a handpiece, a mirror, and a probe etc. appropriate to the clinical scenario. The simulator must provide a good level of tactile feedback, particularly in relation to hard and soft tissues. The simulators will be used to enhance the quality of speciality teaching and learning at the School of Dentistry; haptics have not previously been used at the School of Dentistry. Haptic simulators will be used in a variety of specialty teaching modules. Areas where we could apply this technology to augment our current offering would be widespread such as manual dexterity training, practice for class II competencies, practice for crown prep competency, practice of IDB delivery are obvious examples of the additional improvements in current teaching which could be offered. Page 5 to 8 With this in mind, we expect the instruments to provide advanced solutions for a high quality learning experience: The instruments must have the following competencies: • Manual dexterity • Operative Dentistry • Prosthodontics • Endodontics • Implantology • Patient specific - problem based • Dental anaesthesia learning cases • Able to read and combine multiple single teeth in PLY or STL format with easy voxalization within the simulator with automatic segmentation • Support of image guided simulation by merging intraoral scans and CT scans in one model, which allows the display of real-time cross-sectional views • Re-locatable on wheels and can be used above a desk to save space • Includes phantom head with upper and lower jaws for hand and finger support • Combines Virtual Reality with Reality elements in a co-located Mixed Reality auto stereo display • Willing to develop new cases and work with the University on this