A novel liver surgical navigation system using polyhedrons with STL-format

Abstract

We have developed the liver surgical navigation system composed of three subsystems: the liver position and orientation estimator, the surgical knife position estimator and the liver surgical navigator. These subsystems work separately for estimating the liver position and the knife position, and the liver surgical navigation system will use those positions to navigate surgeons accurately. The liver position is estimated by comparing two depth images; an image come from a depth camera targeting the liver and an image rendered by OpenGL using the Polyhedrons with STL-format data previously scanned from a patient. The knife position is estimated by tracking markers put at the top of the knife. The surgical navigation system holds precise data such as positions of vessels or the surgical steps, and show appropriate navigation data to the surgeons. In this paper, we describe the overview of this system and how we integrated these subsystems into the liver surgery supporting system.