Medical Navigation Augmented Reality Overlay for Surgical Instrument Positioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical navigation devices restrict the doctor's field of view during minimally invasive surgeries, making it difficult to intuitively identify the position of surgical instruments and adjacent anatomical structures, leading to increased surgery time and operator fatigue.
Innovation Solution
A medical image processing apparatus and method using augmented reality, which obtains endoscopic images and medical image data to render partial medical image data as an augmented reality image, allowing for intuitive identification of surgical sites and anatomical structures by determining a target area based on the endoscope's position and direction, and generating volume rendering data within a region of interest.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If cross-sectional images are used to display surgical instrument position, then the medical navigation device can track position accurately, but the operator cannot intuitively identify the position and requires more time and skill
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms 2D cross-sectional images into a 3D augmented reality view that overlays surgical instrument positions directly onto the anatomical structures. This dimensional transformation allows operators to intuitively understand spatial relationships without mentally reconstructing positions from multiple cross-sectional planes, while maintaining precise tracking through coordinate system transformations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the anatomical structures and surgical instruments from medical imaging data, then renders this copy in an augmented reality overlay. This virtual copy preserves the precise positional information from the medical images while presenting it in an intuitive 3D format that matches the operator's physical view of the surgical site.
2Measurement precision
If the operator spends more time looking at the monitor to determine surgical instrument position, then position accuracy can be confirmed, but the overall surgery time increases and operator fatigue increases
Solution Approach 1:
The augmented reality overlay provides continuous, real-time visualization of surgical instrument positions directly in the operator's field of view. This eliminates the need for periodic glances at monitors to check positions, allowing the operator to maintain continuous awareness of instrument locations without breaking their surgical workflow or increasing fatigue.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an augmented reality overlay as an intermediary that bridges the gap between the physical surgical site and the digital medical imaging data. This overlay mediates the information transfer by presenting processed position data in a format that requires no additional interpretation time, eliminating the need for the operator to switch between viewing the surgical site and checking monitor displays.
3Loss of information
If full medical image data is rendered, then complete anatomical information is provided, but the computation required for rendering increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by rendering anatomical structures with different levels of detail based on their relevance to the current surgical view. Structures within the region of interest are rendered with high detail, while peripheral structures use lower detail levels. This selective rendering maintains essential anatomical information while significantly reducing the computational burden of processing and displaying complete medical image data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the medical image data into distinct anatomical structures and regions of interest, then processes and renders only the relevant segments. By dividing the complete anatomical dataset into manageable segments based on surgical relevance, the system preserves necessary anatomical information while avoiding the computational overhead of rendering entire datasets at full resolution.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a medical image processing apparatus and a medical image processing method for a medical navigation device, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for processing an image provided when using the medical navigation device. To this end, the present invention provides a medical image processing apparatus for a medical navigation device, including: a position tracking unit configured to obtain position information of the medical navigation device within an object; a memory configured to store medical image data generated based on a medical image of the object; and a processor configured to set a region of interest (ROI) based on position information of the medical navigation device in reference to the medical image data, and generate partial medical image data corresponding to the ROI, and a medical image processing method using the same.