Contact: Michael Padilla, 277-1816

Feb. 20, 2003 LOS ALAMOS NATIVE'S WORK PUBLISHED IN GOLD MEDAL WINNING DVD Work by Bill Anderson, University of New Mexico student and Los Alamos native, has been published in a New York Film Festival gold medal winning DVD. Anderson designed a 3-D haptic pool game -haptic refers to the sense of touch as graphics refers to the sense of sight. This force-feedback pool game allows players to play a 3-D version of pool, and actually feel interactions in the game such as hitting the balls, and moving around the table. In the DVD, Anderson's pool game shows some of the features of haptic interaction. The DVD is about haptic technology in general. Anderson has been a software developer at Novint Technologies in Albuquerque since May 1999. His brother Tom is the CEO of Novint Technologies. Tom started the company as a spin off of Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Anderson also works at SNL in the Scientific Visualization Department. He is designing a haptic epidural needle simulator. This project is a senior design project at UNM in conjunction with Novint Technologies and the anesthesiology department at UNM Hospital. "This force-feedback simulator will hopefully provide medical students with a realistic training tool in order to reduce the risks and dangers to patients in epidural procedures," he said. Anderson said by training students with a realistic simulator, their skills and experience improve before they come in contact with a live patient. To overcome many of the current obstacles associated with medical training, haptic technology can be used to incorporate force-feedback with life-like human anatomy in a 3-D working environment to simulate real life interactions, pressures and forces, he said. Needle insertions require a feel that cannot be taught out of a book and must be acquired through experience alone. Anderson said a haptic needle simulator will provide a reliable, cost effective, clean and reusable way for students to learn the skills needed to reduce the risk of harming patients. Anderson is also doing research at UNM involving haptic hardware design, and at the end of this semester will have a publishable document describing his work. After receiving his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at UNM in May, Anderson plans to attend graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle where he will focus on control systems and haptic technology research. Anderson said he feels that he has received top-notch education at UNM. "The thing I like best about UNM is that it is a high ranking university in many respects, but people often do not realize it," Anderson said. "The School of Engineering at UNM is in the top 50 in the nation, and it is one of the only universities in the country with a fully self functioning medical hospital. Because UNM is a top tier university, it draws a lot of great professors which ultimately leads to a better education for students." His parents are Bob and Cathy Anderson. They are the owners of Fur and Feather Rescue in Los Alamos, a non-profit animal rescue and rehabilitation organization. Anderson said his role model is his brother Tom. "Tom has always supported everything I do, and is one of the smartest people I know," he said. Information on haptics and Novint can be found at www.novint.com. The DVD can be found at http://www.cs.sandia.gov/SEL/news/movie_award.htm. ###

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