Interactive augmented reality system for laparoscopic and video assisted surgeries

Abstract

This disclosure describes an interactive augmented reality system for improving surgeon's view and context awareness during laparoscopic and video assisted surgeries. Instead of purely relying on computer vision algorithms for image registration between pre-operation (or intra-operation) images/models and later intra-operation scope images, the system can implement an interactive mechanism where surgeons may provide supervised information in initial calibration phase of the augmented reality function, thus achieving high accuracy in image registration. Besides the initialization phase before operation starts, interaction between surgeon and the system can also happens during the surgery. Specifically, patient tissue might move or deform during surgery, caused by for example cutting. The augmented reality system can re-calibrate during surgery when image registration accuracy deteriorates, by seeking additional supervised labeling from surgeons. The augmented reality system can improve surgeon's view during surgery, by utilizing surgeon's guidance sporadically to achieve high image registration accuracy.