Endoscopic image overlay surgical navigation using augmented and virtual reality technologies

Surgical navigation system using an endoscope has some limitations because of 2D endoscopic camera image. The endoscopic image has no information about spatial depth of the organs below the surface. To resolve this problem, augmented reality and virtual reality techniques were used for surgical navigation in endoscopic surgery. Phantom experiment was conducted for accuracy evaluation, and the feasibility was checked in clinical application.