title: Intelligent vision guide for automatic ventilation grommet insertion into the tympanic membrane.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Otitis media with effusion is a worldwide ear disease. The current treatment is to surgically insert a ventilation grommet into the tympanic membrane. A robotic device allowing automatic grommet insertion has been designed in a previous study; however, the part of the membrane where the malleus bone is attached to the inner surface is to be avoided during the insertion process.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper proposes a synergy of optical flow technique and a gradient vector flow active contours algorithm to achieve an online tracking of the malleus under endoscopic vision, to guide the working channel to move efficiently during the surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proposed method shows a more stable and accurate tracking performance than the current tracking methods in preclinical tests.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With satisfactory tracking results, vision guidance of a suitable insertion spot can be provided to the device to perform the surgery in an automatic way.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Wenchao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Kok Kiong
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering, National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Wenyu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Chee Wee
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, National University of Singapore.
authors.forename: Hsueh Yee
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Lim
mesh_terms: D004724:Endoscopy; D006801:Humans; D008876:Middle Ear Ventilation / Q000379:methods*; D010034:Otitis Media with Effusion / Q000601:surgery*; D014432:Tympanic Membrane
keywords: computer vision; endoscopy; robotic surgery