title: Telepointer technology in telemedicine: a review.
abstract: Telepointer is a powerful tool in the telemedicine system that enhances the effectiveness of long-distance communication. Telepointer has been tested in telemedicine, and has potential to a big influence in improving quality of health care, especially in the rural area. A telepointer system works by sending additional information in the form of gesture that can convey more accurate instruction or information. It leads to more effective communication, precise diagnosis, and better decision by means of discussion and consultation between the expert and the junior clinicians. However, there is no review paper yet on the state of the art of the telepointer in telemedicine. This paper is intended to give the readers an overview of recent advancement of telepointer technology as a support tool in telemedicine. There are four most popular modes of telepointer system, namely cursor, hand, laser and sketching pointer. The result shows that telepointer technology has a huge potential for wider acceptance in real life applications, there are needs for more improvement in the real time positioning accuracy. More results from actual test (real patient) need to be reported. We believe that by addressing these two issues, telepointer technology will be embraced widely by researchers and practitioners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical, Electronic & Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi, Malaysia. rhn1229@gmail.com
authors.forename: Rohana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abdul Karim
authors.forename: Nor Farizan
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Zakaria
authors.forename: Mohd Asyraf
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zulkifley
authors.forename: Mohd Marzuki
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mustafa
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sagap
authors.forename: Nani Harlina
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Md Latar
mesh_terms: D020811:Biomedical Technology / Q000379:methods; D003142:Communication; D003201:Computers; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D019114:Remote Consultation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012984:Software; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*