Gaze-contingent soft tissue deformation tracking for minimally invasive robotic surgery.
The introduction of surgical robots in Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) has allowed enhanced manual dexterity through the use of microprocessor controlled mechanical wrists. Although fully autonomous robots are attractive, both ethical and legal barriers can prohibit their practical use in surgery. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that it is possible to use real-time binocular eye tracking for empowering robots with human vision by using knowledge acquired in situ. By utilizing the close relationship between the horizontal disparity and the depth perception varying with the viewing distance, it is possible to use ocular vergence for recovering 3D motion and deformation of the soft tissue during MIS procedures. Both phantom and in vivo experiments were carried out to assess the potential frequency limit of the system and its intrinsic depth recovery accuracy. The potential applications of the technique include motion stabilization and intra-operative planning in the presence of large tissue deformation.
Mylonas
George P
GP
Royal Society/Wolfson Medical Image Computing Laboratory, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom. george.mylonas@imperial.ac.uk
Stoyanov
Danail
D
Deligianni
Fani
F
Darzi
Ara
A
Yang
Guang-Zhong
GZ