Augmented Reality Visualization for Laparoscopic Surgery

We present the design and a prototype implementation of a three-dimensional visualization system to assist with laparoscopic surgical procedures. The system uses 3D visualization, depth extraction from laparoscopic images, and six degree-of-freedom head and laparoscope tracking to display a merged real and synthetic image in the surgeon's video-see-through head-mounted display. We also introduce a custom design for this display. A digital light projector, a camera, and a conventional laparoscope create a prototype 3D laparoscope that can extract depth and video imagery. Such a system can restore the physician's natural point of view and head motion parallax that are used to understand the 3D structure during open surgery. These cues are not available in conventional laparoscopic surgery due to the displacement of the laparoscopic camera from the physician's viewpoint. The system can also display multiple laparoscopic range imaging data sets to widen the effective field o...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: MICCAI
• Authors: Henry Fuchs, Mark A. Livingston, Ramesh Raskar, D'nardo Colucci, Kurtis Keller, Andrei State, Jessica R. Crawford, Paul Rademacher, Samuel H. Drake, Anthony A. Meyer
• Keywords: Conventional Laparoscopic Surgery, Laparoscopic, Laparoscopic Surgical Procedures, Medical Imaging, MICCAI 1998