Developing an optical tactile sensor for tracking head motion during radiotherapy: an interview with Bhoomika Gandhi - Robohub

The article features an interview with Bhoomika Gandhi about her PhD research on developing an optical tactile sensor designed to track head motion during radiotherapy for head and neck cancer patients. Traditional immobilisation methods, such as thermoplastic masks and stereotactic frames, can cause discomfort and lead to patient movement, compromising treatment accuracy. Current motion tracking systems rely on ceiling-mounted cameras, which suffer from occlusion issues and cannot reliably capture rotational head movements due to the radiotherapy environment constraints. Gandhi’s solution, the Motion Capture Pillow (MCP), integrates an optical tactile sensor into a deformable pneumatic pillow placed beneath the patient’s head. This sensor provides real-time feedback on both translational and rotational head movements, enhancing tracking accuracy while improving patient comfort and compatibility with radiotherapy settings. Gandhi’s main contributions include making the system more compatible with the radiotherapy environment by reducing ferromagnetic components and improving the imaging and tracking approach. She replaced previous webcam-based binary image processing with a fibrescope, optical