Surgical Structured Light for 3D minimally invasive surgical imaging

Surgeons perform minimally invasive surgery using an image delivered by a laparoscope and a camera system that provides a high definition 2D image, but this leaves the surgeon without 3D depth perception. The lack of depth perception can slow the surgeon, increase the risk of misidentifying structures, and/or inadvertently cause unwanted injury to tissues surrounding the surgical site. To address the lack of depth perception, we propose a Surgical Structured Light (SSL) system that includes a 3D sensor capable of measuring and modeling the surgical site during a procedure. The 3D information provided by this system can enable the surgeon to: 1) improve the navigation of tools based on precise localization of instruments in relation to structures in the surgical site, 2) allow 3D visualizations side-by-side with a standard 2D color image, and 3) precisely measure sizes of structures (e.g., tumors) and distances between structures with simple mouse clicks. We demonstrate the accuracy of our SSL system using ex-vivo data on both a cylinder calibration object as well as various plastic organs.