Virtual annotations of the surgical field through an augmented reality transparent display

Abstract

Existing telestrator-based surgical telementoring systems require a trainee surgeon to shift focus frequently between the operating field and a nearby monitor to acquire and apply instructions from a remote mentor. We present a novel approach to surgical telementoring where annotations are superimposed directly onto the surgical field using an augmented reality (AR) simulated transparent display. We present our first steps towards realizing this vision, using two networked conventional tablets to allow a mentor to remotely annotate the operating field as seen by a trainee. Annotations are anchored to the surgical field as the trainee tablet moves and as the surgical field deforms or becomes occluded. The system is built exclusively from compact commodity-level components—all imaging and processing are performed on the two tablets.