A recent article details several new features being developed for the da Vinci robot by researchers at the Imperial College of London. In other news, machines are rapidly overtaking man.

According to the article, one new feature allows the robot to create the illusion that moving organs, like the beating heart, are standing still. There are two parts to this trick: first the robot tracks the surgeon’s eye movements to identify targets that are moving in a rhythmic fashion, then it just moves the scope and instruments in sync with the target. The end result is a near-static image of the target area for the surgeon, which should lead to vast improvements in precision and may even enable entirely new procedures.

In another new feature, radiography is superimposed over select parts of the surgical field so that surgeons can ’see’ the approximate position of things like vessels, for example, through thick layers of fat or other structures. This feature would make dissection a lot simpler and is certainly a great improvement over running back and forth between the field and lightboxes.

Finally, another feature creates automatic “no-cut zones” around major vessels and nerves, which the surgeon has to actively override during the case. This extra layer of protection will no doubt prevent lots of surgical mishaps (and subsequent malpractice suits).

One day we’ll all look back and say, “Remember when we used to actually stick our hands in people?”