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Robotic Surgery On a Beating Heart
An anonymous reader writes "Serious heart surgery usually involves stopping the organ and keeping the patient alive with a cardiopulmonary bypass machine. But this risks brain damage and requires a long recuperation. Scientists at Harvard University and Children's Hospital Boston have now developed a device that lets surgeons operate on a beating heart with a steady hand. The 'robotic' device uses 3-D ultrasound images to predict and compensate for the motion of the heart so that the surgeon can work on a faulty valve as it moves. The approach should improve recovery times and give a surgeon instant feedback on the success of the procedure, the researchers say. Here's a (slightly gory) video of the device in action."
NOW THEY'RE DISSECTING US!
Your question contains the answer. What would happen is a blue screen of, you know, death.
Seriously though, even if the software were written to be somehow provably correct, hardware can always fail. So can the surgeon.
I'd gladly be touched by a robot as long as it left less of a mess on the way out.
Pervert.