Relative pose estimation of surgical tools in assisted minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is one of these applications where usually only 2D information is available to perform a 3D task. It requires a high degree of sensory-motor skills to overcome the disengagement between action and perception caused by the physical separation of the surgeon with the operative site. The integration of body movements with visual information serves to assist the surgeon providing a sense of position. Our purpose in this paper is to present a solution to the exterior orientation problem based on computer vision, as a tool in assisted interventions, locating the instruments with respect to the surgeon. Having knowledge of the 3D transformations applied to the instrument and its projections in the image plane, we show it is possible to estimate its orientation with only two different rotations and also its relative position if scale information is supplied. Experimental results show some advantages of this new algorithm such as simplicity and real-time performance. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.