12 research outputs found
Activity profiling for minimally invasive surgery
Imperial Users onl
Ultrasound-Augmented Laparoscopy
Laparoscopic surgery is perhaps the most common minimally invasive procedure for many diseases in the abdomen. Since the laparoscopic camera provides only the surface view of the internal organs, in many procedures, surgeons use laparoscopic ultrasound (LUS) to visualize deep-seated surgical targets. Conventionally, the 2D LUS image is visualized in a display spatially separate from that displays the laparoscopic video. Therefore, reasoning about the geometry of hidden targets requires mentally solving the spatial alignment, and resolving the modality differences, which is cognitively very challenging. Moreover, the mental representation of hidden targets in space acquired through such cognitive medication may be error prone, and cause incorrect actions to be performed.
To remedy this, advanced visualization strategies are required where the US information is visualized in the context of the laparoscopic video. To this end, efficient computational methods are required to accurately align the US image coordinate system with that centred in the camera, and to render the registered image information in the context of the camera such that surgeons perceive the geometry of hidden targets accurately. In this thesis, such a visualization pipeline is described. A novel method to register US images with a camera centric coordinate system is detailed with an experimental investigation into its accuracy bounds. An improved method to blend US information with the surface view is also presented with an experimental investigation into the accuracy of perception of the target locations in space
Real-Time Stereo Vision System: A Multi-Block Matching on GPU
Real-time stereo vision is attractive in many areas such as outdoor mapping and navigation. As a popular accelerator in the image processing field, GPU is widely used for the studies of the stereo vision algorithms. Recently, many stereo vision systems on GPU have achieved low error rate, as a result of the development of deep learning. However, their processing speed is normally far from the real-time requirement. In this paper, we propose a real-time stereo vision system on GPU for the high-resolution images. This system also maintains a low error rate compared with other fast systems. In our approach, the image is resized to reduce the computational complexity and to realize the real-time processing. The low error rate is kept by using the cost aggregation with multiple blocks, secondary matching and sub-pixel estimation. Its processing speed is 41 fps for 2888×1920 pixels images when the maximum disparity is 760
Konzeption und Entwicklung eines trinokularen Endoskops zur robusten Oberflächenerfassung in der minimalinvasiven Chirurgie
Die minimalinvasive Chirurgie ist eine besonders anspruchsvolle Aufgabe für den Chirurgen, da die Operation ausschließlich über Endoskope und stangenartige, filigrane Instrumente erfolgt. Computerassistierte Stereo-Endoskopiesysteme erleichtern die Tiefenwahrnehmung und unterstützen bei verschiedensten Anwendungen wie z.B. der Resektion eines Nierentumors durch Augmented Reality. Eine wesentliche Aufgabe ist die robuste dreidimensionale Erfassung der beobachteten Oberfläche der Organe. Aufgrund starker Reflexionen durch die endoskopische Lichtquelle, homogener Texturen und weicher, sich bewegender Geometrien ist eine zuverlässige Oberflächenerfassung sehr herausfordernd und stellt noch ein ungelöstes Problem dar. In dieser Arbeit wird deshalb ein neuartiges miniaturisiertes Dreikamerasystem als Demonstrator für ein trinokulares
Endoskop sowie ein Algorithmus zur Dreibildauswertung mit semi-globaler Optimierung entwickelt. Durch synthetische und reale Messdaten werden theoretische Überlegungen anhand von drei Hypothesen geprüft. Im Vergleich zu einer stereoskopischen Auswertung wird untersucht, ob eine Dreibildauswertung robustere Ergebnisse liefert, kleinere Referenz- und Suchfenster ermöglicht und eine rechenzeitaufwendige semi-globale Optimierung ersetzt. Es stellt sich heraus, dass die ersten beiden Annahmen grundsätzlich zutreffen, eine semi-globale Optimierung aber nur bedingt ersetzt werden kann. Weiterhin werden die Fehlereinflüsse durch Reflexionen näher spezifiziert und durch gekreuzte Polarisationsfilter sehr effektiv unterdrückt. Das vorgestellte Dreikamera-Endoskop und angepasste Auswerteverfahren tragen wesentlich zur Verbesserung der computerassistierten Endoskopie bei und bringen die Forschungen in diesem Gebiet einen Schritt voran.Minimally invasive surgery is a quite challenging task to the surgeon due to operation through an endoscope and sensitive telescopic instruments exclusively. Computer assisted stereo endoscopic systems eases depth perception and supports several tasks such as dissection of a renal tumour by augmented reality. An essential procedure is robust surface reconstruction of the observed organs. Due to strong reflections from the endoscopic light source, homogeneous textures and weak deforming geometries robust surface reconstruction becomes quite challenging and is not solved successfully yet. Therefore, in this work a novel miniaturised three camera endoscope is introduced and an algorithm for three image analysis and semi-global optimisation is implemented. Synthetic and real experimental measurements are conducted to evaluate theoretical assumptions and review three hypotheses. In contrast to stereo analysis, it is examined whether three image analysis leads to more robust results, allows for smaller matching window sizes and replaces a time-consuming semiglobal matching algorithm. The investigations show that the first two assumptions can generally be confirmed, but the semi-global matching is necessary in some cases. Additionally, errors by reflections are examined in more detail and are suppressed efficiently by crossed polarising filters. The novel three camera endoscope and customized image analysis algorithm gives a great benefit to computer assisted endoscopy and brings research a step closer to more reliable assistant systems
Binocular endoscopic 3-D scene reconstruction using color and gradient-boosted aggregation stereo matching for robotic surgery
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015. This paper seeks to develop fast and accurate endoscopic stereo 3-D scene reconstruction for image-guided robotic surgery. Although stereo 3-D reconstruction techniques have been widely discussed over the last few decades, they still remain challenging for endoscopic stereo images with photometric variations, noise, and specularities. To address these limitations, we propose a robust stereo matching framework that constructs cost function on the basis of image gradient and three-channel color information for endoscopic stereo scene 3-D reconstruction. Color information is powerful for textureless stereo pairs and gradient is robust to texture structures under noise and illumination change. We evaluate our stereo matching framework on clinical patient stereoscopic endoscopic sequence data. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach significantly outperforms current available methods. In particular, our framework provided 99.5% reconstructed density of stereo images compared to other available matching strategies which achieved at the most an 87.6% reconstruction of the scene
Manipulador aéreo con brazos antropomórficos de articulaciones flexibles
[Resumen] Este artículo presenta el primer robot manipulador aéreo con dos brazos antropomórficos diseñado para aplicarse en tareas de inspección y mantenimiento en entornos industriales de difícil acceso para operarios humanos. El robot consiste en una plataforma aérea multirrotor equipada con dos brazos antropomórficos ultraligeros, así como el sistema de control integrado de la plataforma y los brazos. Una de las principales características del manipulador es la flexibilidad mecánica proporcionada en todas las articulaciones, lo que aumenta la seguridad en las interacciones físicas con el entorno y la protección del propio robot. Para ello se ha introducido un compacto y simple mecanismo de transmisión por muelle entre el eje del servo y el enlace de salida. La estructura en aluminio de los brazos ha sido cuidadosamente diseñada de forma que los actuadores estén aislados frente a cargas radiales y axiales que los puedan dañar. El manipulador desarrollado ha sido validado a través de experimentos en base fija y en pruebas de vuelo en exteriores.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad; DPI2014-5983-C2-1-