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Haptic Feedback Reduces Telesurgery Operators' Reaction Times Compared to Conventional Stimulation: Results of a
Vaidas Labunskas1,2, Vilius Dambrauskas1,2, Augustė Melaikaitė3
1Health Telematics Science Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, 44249 Kaunas, Lithuania.
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
|May 13, 2026
Summary
Haptic feedback, combining visual and tactile input, significantly reduces reaction time for telesurgery. This sensory integration enhances operator performance, particularly in older age groups, improving safety in remote surgical applications.
Area of Science:
- Robotics and Automation
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Surgical Technology
Background:
- Telesurgery requires precise control and rapid responses, making reaction time (RT) a critical factor.
- Sensory feedback, including visual and tactile cues, influences operator performance in complex tasks.
- Haptic feedback (HF) offers potential to enhance situational awareness and reduce response latency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of haptic feedback (HF) in reducing reaction time (RT) for telesurgical applications.
- To compare RT across different sensory stimuli, including unimodal and multimodal inputs simulating HF.
- To investigate the influence of age on RT performance with varying sensory stimuli.
Main Methods:
- Prospective, cross-sectional study involving three healthy-volunteer age cohorts (18-25, 35-45, 55-65 years).
- Participants were tested using visual, auditory, superficial, and deep sensory stimuli.
- A multimodal stimulus combining visual and superficial inputs was used to simulate haptic feedback.
Main Results:
- Combined visual and superficial stimulation (simulating HF) yielded a mean RT of 227 ± 27 ms.
- This multimodal stimulus outperformed visual-only (by 40 ms) and superficial-only (by 26 ms) stimulation (p = 0.001).
- The 55-65 age cohort showed the most significant RT reduction with combined stimuli, consistent across all groups.
Conclusions:
- Integrating tactile sensations with visual cues significantly mitigates latency compared to unimodal inputs.
- Haptic feedback shows strong potential for enhancing operator performance and safety in latency-sensitive environments like remote surgery.
- Sensory integration strategies are crucial for optimizing human performance in advanced telesurgical systems.
