Optical techniques for 3D surface reconstruction in computer-assisted laparoscopic surgery

One of the main challenges for computer-assisted surgery (CAS) is to determine the intra-opera- tive morphology and motion of soft-tissues. This information is prerequisite to the registration of multi-modal patient-specific data for enhancing the surgeon’s navigation capabilites by observ- ing beyond exposed tissue surfaces and for providing intelligent control of robotic-assisted in- struments. In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), optical techniques are an increasingly attractive approach for in vivo 3D reconstruction of the soft-tissue surface geometry. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art methods for optical intra-operative 3D reconstruction in laparoscopic surgery and discusses the technical challenges and future perspectives towards clinical translation. With the recent paradigm shift of surgical practice towards MIS and new developments in 3D opti- cal imaging, this is a timely discussion about technologies that could facilitate complex CAS procedures in dynamic and deformable anatomical regions

ToF cameras for active vision in robotics

ToF cameras are now a mature technology that is widely being adopted to provide sensory input to robotic applications. Depending on the nature of the objects to be perceived and the viewing distance, we distinguish two groups of applications: those requiring to capture the whole scene and those centered on an object. It will be demonstrated that it is in this last group of applications, in which the robot has to locate and possibly manipulate an object, where the distinctive characteristics of ToF cameras can be better exploited. After presenting the physical sensor features and the calibration requirements of such cameras, we review some representative works highlighting for each one which of the distinctive ToF characteristics have been more essential. Even if at low resolution, the acquisition of 3D images at frame-rate is one of the most important features, as it enables quick background/ foreground segmentation. A common use is in combination with classical color cameras. We present three developed applications, using a mobile robot and a robotic arm, to exemplify with real images some of the stated advantages.This work was supported by the EU project GARNICS FP7-247947, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under project PAU+ DPI2011-27510, and by the Catalan Research Commission through SGR-00155Peer Reviewe

ToF cameras for eye-in-hand robotics

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under project PAU+ DPI2011-27510, by the EU Project IntellAct FP7-ICT2009-6-269959 and by the Catalan Research Commission through SGR-00155.Peer Reviewe

Exploitation of time-of-flight (ToF) cameras

This technical report reviews the state-of-the art in the field of ToF cameras, their advantages, their limitations, and their present-day applications sometimes in combination with other sensors. Even though ToF cameras provide neither higher resolution nor larger ambiguity-free range compared to other range map estimation systems, advantages such as registered depth and intensity data at a high frame rate, compact design, low weight and reduced power consumption have motivated their use in numerous areas of research. In robotics, these areas range from mobile robot navigation and map building to vision-based human motion capture and gesture recognition, showing particularly a great potential in object modeling and recognition.Preprin

Kinect Range Sensing: Structured-Light versus Time-of-Flight Kinect

Recently, the new Kinect One has been issued by Microsoft, providing the next generation of real-time range sensing devices based on the Time-of-Flight (ToF) principle. As the first Kinect version was using a structured light approach, one would expect various differences in the characteristics of the range data delivered by both devices. This paper presents a detailed and in-depth comparison between both devices. In order to conduct the comparison, we propose a framework of seven different experimental setups, which is a generic basis for evaluating range cameras such as Kinect. The experiments have been designed with the goal to capture individual effects of the Kinect devices as isolatedly as possible and in a way, that they can also be adopted, in order to apply them to any other range sensing device. The overall goal of this paper is to provide a solid insight into the pros and cons of either device. Thus, scientists that are interested in using Kinect range sensing cameras in their specific application scenario can directly assess the expected, specific benefits and potential problem of either device.Comment: 58 pages, 23 figures. Accepted for publication in Computer Vision and Image Understanding (CVIU

A Brief Survey of Image-Based Depth Upsampling

Recently, there has been remarkable growth of interest in the development and applications of Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth cameras. However, despite the permanent improvement of their characteristics, the practical applicability of ToF cameras is still limited by low resolution and quality of depth measurements. This has motivated many researchers to combine ToF cameras with other sensors in order to enhance and upsample depth images. In this paper, we compare ToF cameras to three image-based techniques for depth recovery, discuss the upsampling problem and survey the approaches that couple ToF depth images with high-resolution optical images. Other classes of upsampling methods are also mentioned

Analysis of ICP variants for the registration of partially overlapping time-of-flight range images

The iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm is one of the most commonly used methods for registering partially overlapping range images. Nevertheless, this algorithm was not originally designed for this task, and many variants have been proposed in an effort to improve its prociency. The relatively new full-field amplitude-modulated time-of-flight range imaging cameras present further complications to registration in the form of measurement errors due to mixed and scattered light. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the most common ICP variants applied to range image data acquired from full-field range imaging cameras. The original ICP algorithm combined with boundary rejection performed the same as or better than the majority of variants tested. In fact, many of these variants proved to decrease the registration alignment

Image-guided ToF depth upsampling: a survey

Recently, there has been remarkable growth of interest in the development and applications of time-of-flight (ToF) depth cameras. Despite the permanent improvement of their characteristics, the practical applicability of ToF cameras is still limited by low resolution and quality of depth measurements. This has motivated many researchers to combine ToF cameras with other sensors in order to enhance and upsample depth images. In this paper, we review the approaches that couple ToF depth images with high-resolution optical images. Other classes of upsampling methods are also briefly discussed. Finally, we provide an overview of performance evaluation tests presented in the related studies