Stereo Surgical Navigation with Real-Time 3D Model Overlay
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical navigation systems lack the ability to effectively integrate and display preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative data in real-time, leading to reduced precision and increased complexity for surgeons during procedures.
Innovation Solution
A system that captures stereo image streams from two cameras, generates a 3D model of the surgical field, and overlays annotating data such as MRI, CT, and physiological studies onto the image stream, allowing for enhanced visualization and registration of anatomical structures and tissue deformation, thereby improving the surgeon's perception and accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If multiple data sources (MRI, CT, physiological studies) are integrated into the surgical navigation system, then the comprehensiveness of surgical information is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple data sources (MRI, CT, physiological studies) into a unified surgical navigation system by co-registering them with real-time stereo video feeds. This integration allows all surgical information to be displayed through a single interface, reducing information loss while managing complexity through centralized processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The surgical navigation system is designed with multi-functionality to handle diverse data types (anatomical imaging, physiological data, real-time video) through a common platform. The system can process and display various modalities simultaneously, making it universally applicable to different surgical needs without requiring separate specialized systems.
2Measurement precision
If real-time stereo video feeds are processed and enhanced with annotating data, then the surgeon's perception of the surgical field is improved, but the processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary registration and alignment of annotating data with the surgical field before real-time video processing. By pre-processing and co-registering anatomical structures with the stereo camera views, the system reduces computational burden during live surgery, maintaining high visualization accuracy while minimizing processing delays.
3Loss of information
If annotating data is overlaid onto the stereo image stream, then the information density in the surgical view is improved, but the clarity of the anatomical structures may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality enhancement by selectively overlaying annotating data only in regions where it adds value, rather than uniformly across the entire image. Different visualization modes allow surgeons to adjust the density and prominence of overlaid information in specific anatomical regions, maintaining clarity where needed while providing high information density where critical.
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical guidance system has two cameras to provide stereo image stream of a surgical field; and a stereo viewer. The system has a 3D surface extraction module that generates a first 3D model of the surgical field from the stereo image streams; a registration module for co-registering annotating data with the first 3D model; and a stereo image enhancer for graphically overlaying at least part of the annotating data onto the stereo image stream to form an enhanced stereo image stream for display, where the enhanced stereo stream enhances a surgeon's perception of the surgical field. The registration module has an alignment refiner to adjust registration of the annotating data with the 3D model based upon matching of features within the 3D model and features within the annotating data; and in an embodiment, a deformation modeler to deform the annotating data based upon a determined tissue deformation.