GOGGLES WOULD PUT SURGERY IN FOCUS.(CAPITALAND RPT)

Byline: Associated Press

KETTERING, Ohio -- The future of brain surgery just might be strapped around a plastic foam bust in an operating room at Kettering Memorial Hospital.

The helmet-like device with square-framed goggles and reflective lenses is waiting to play its part in another operation.

``It is going to be useful,'' said neurosurgical specialist Tim Gillum, who has worn the device during an operation. ``Nobody else I know of is using this technology.''

The goggles project computer-generated images and data into the surgeon's eye. Called Virtual Retinal Scanning technology, it uses low-power laser beams to paint rows of pixels onto the retina, creating a high-resolution, full-motion image that appears to be an arm's length away.

The prototype, which is being tested by the hospital, is designed to allow surgeons and surgical assistants to operate without having to stop and look up at computer screens to read a patient's vital signs, tumor scans and other data that could affect the operation.

Martin Satter, a physicist with the hospital's Wallace-Kettering Neuroscience Institute, said surgeons sometimes have to swivel their heads so often, it looks like they're watching tennis.

``We were looking for some new technology to kind of break through this problem,'' he said.

Satter checked the Internet and found the Web site of Microvision Inc., a Bothell, Wash.-based company that made retinal-display products for the military.

Satter talked the company into developing goggles for the medical field. Several members of Congress helped get funding for the project through a cooperative agreement with the Air Force.

U.S. Rep. David Hobson helped hospital officials get $4.9 million in federal money to help fund the project. The Ohio Republican has long been interested in transferring technology developed by the military to the private sector.

``This looked to me like a good one,'' said Hobson. ``I thought it was a win-win for everybody.''