ABSTRACT
Th is chapter discusses work in palpatory diagnosis training for schools of medicine and allied health. Palpatory diagnosis involves identifying medical problems via touch. First we present a literature review to establish the state of the art in palpatory diagnosis using virtual reality and then we present a case study: the Virtual Haptic Back project at Ohio University. Haptics indicates the human sense of touch, and haptic interfaces provide force and touch feedback from virtual environments. Our digital human modeling includes both realistic 3D surface models of the back geometry and accurate compliance measurement of human tissue in vivo.
