Surgical navigation system with intuitive three-dimensional display

Abstract

This paper describes a newly developed surgical navigation system that superimposes the real, intuitive 3-D image of the patient’s internal structure on the patient’s body, and helps surgeons to perform surgery. The system consists of a personal computer, a lens array, a supporting stage, a liquid crystal display and a half-silvered mirror. The 3-D images are generated by real-time computer-generated integral photography, and superimposed on the patient’s body via a half-silvered mirror, as if they could be seen through the body. The differences between the theoretical positions of the projected 3-D images and the recognized ones were found to be less than 3.8 mm, within an area of 100 × 100 × 40 mm in the vicinity of the operation. The location of the point in the superimposed 3-D image could be recognized within an error of 3 to 4 mm. A 3-D bone image of a wrist joint superimposed on the corresponding part could be observed with correct motion parallax by more than one person and appeared to the observers as if it could be seen through the body. Because of the simplicity and the intuitiveness of the navigation image, this system will become applicable to clinical use in the near future.