IEEE EMBC'09

The 31st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC'09) took place in Minneapolis (September 2-6). There have been almost 1900 papers published with the conference, and around 2200 participants.
The first plenary speaker was Andrew Zachary Fire from Stanford, giving a talk under the title: Use of new nanotechnology-based DNA sequencing technologies to illuminate cellular regulation and defense. Further plenary speakers included Earl Bakken, founder of Medtronic Inc.
There were several sessions dedicated to surgical robotics and computer.integrated surgical systems. The oral sessions covered the following topics:

• Design of an Ultrasound-Guided Robotic Brachytherapy Needle-Insertion System
• Soft Tissue Deformation Tracking for Robotic Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery
• Testing of Neurosurgical Needle Steering Via Duty-Cycled Spinning in Brain Tissue in Vitro
• Observations of Needle-Tissue Interactions
• Semi-Autonomous Surgical Tasks Using a Miniature in Vivo Surgical Robot
• Simulation for Optimal Design of Hand-Held Surgical Robots
• Robotic Patch-Stabilizer Using Wire Driven Mechanism for Minimally Invasive Fetal Surgery
• Autonomous Avoidance Based on Motion Delay of Master Slave Surgical Robot
• Model Based Stabilization of Soft Tissue Targets in Needle Insertion Procedures
• The Study of Fiducial Localization Error of Image in Point-Based Registration
• A High Performance Graphic and Haptic Curvilinear Capsulorrhexis Simulation System
• Minimally Invasive Localization of Light Source in Tissue with an Equidistant Measurement
• Modeling the Temperature Dependence of Thermophysical Properties: Study on the Effect of Temperature Dependence for RFA
• Operability Evaluation Using an Simulation System for Gripping Motion in Robotic Tele-Surgery
• Ultrasound Guided Robotic Biopsy Using Augmented Reality and Human-Robot Cooperative Control
• A Novel Non-model-based 6-DOF Electromagnetic Tracking Method Using Non-iterative Algorithm
• MRI-Compatible Micromanipulator, Positioning Repeatability Tests and Kinematic Calibration
• Soft-Tissue Modeling and Image-Guided Control of Steerable Needles
• Development of a robotic endoscope that locomotes in the colon with flexible helical fins
• Patient Motion Tracking in the Presence of Measurement Errors
• Catheter Localization in the Left Atrium Using an Outdated Anatomic Reference for Guidance
• Comparison of Visual Tracking Algorithms on in Vivo Sequences for Robot-Assisted Flexible Endoscopic Surgery
• Design of a Telemanipulated System for Transluminal Surgery
• Hybrid Attitude Estimation for Laparoscopic Surgical Tools: A Preliminary Study
• Active Guidance for Laser Retinal Surgery with a Handheld Instrument
• Dynamic View Expansion for Minimally Invasive Surgery Using Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
• Influence of Visual Feedback and Speed on Micromanipulation Accuracy
• Master and Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot (MASTER) for Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES)
• Real-Time, Haptics-Enabled Simulator for Probing Ex Vivo Liver Tissue
• Characterization of Pre-Curved Needles for Steering in Tissue
• Wireless Steering Mechanism with Magnetic Actuation for an Endoscopic Capsule

These papers are available through IEEE Xplore.