We teamed up with medical experts from the Kent State College of Podiatric Medicine and devised a virtual reality force feedback system to simulate ingrown toenail removal as a stepping-stone towards a new, immersive form of classroom learning material. Our system features realistic haptic (force and tactile) feedback for dynamic interactions with virtual surgical tools and a virtual 3D patient model, developed and verified with medical experts. We measure and report the system usability by conducting a user study with 29 participants, including medical and non-medical subjects.

This is our initial work which kickstarted the collaboration with the Kent State College of Podiatric Medicine which explores surgical simulation in virtual reality with bimanual haptic feedback in podiatry. I began this research as an undergraduate student which won Best Poster at the Choose Ohio First Conference 2023 and then won the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium 2023 as I entered the graduate level.