title: Real-time stereo reconstruction in robotically assisted minimally invasive surgery.
abstract: The recovery of 3D tissue structure and morphology during robotic assisted surgery is an important step towards accurate deployment of surgical guidance and control techniques in minimally invasive therapies. In this article, we present a novel stereo reconstruction algorithm that propagates disparity information around a set of candidate feature matches. This has the advantage of avoiding problems with specular highlights, occlusions from instruments and view dependent illumination bias. Furthermore, the algorithm can be used with any feature matching strategy allowing the propagation of depth in very disparate views. Validation is provided for a phantom model with known geometry and this data is available online in order to establish a structured validation scheme in the field. The practical value of the proposed method is further demonstrated by reconstructions on various in vivo images of robotic assisted procedures, which are also available to the community.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK. danail.stoyanov@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: Danail
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stoyanov
authors.forename: Marco Visentini
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Scarzanella
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pratt
authors.forename: Guang-Zhong
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003199:Computer Systems; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*