Automated Detection of Heterogeneity in Medical Tactile Images.

Artificial tactile sensing is a capability important for many applications and, in particular, for endoscopic surgery. A recently developed Medical Tactile Endosurgical Complex (MTEC) that is a certified and commercially available product is an efficient tool that provides such a capability. Currently the analysis of intraoperative tactile images that are registered and visualized by MTEC is performed manually by a surgeon. We show that heterogeneity detection - a key constituent of intraoperative tactile images analysis - can be efficiently automated. Such automation essentially reduces the requirement of attention retaining during the MTEC-based palpation.