A stereoscopic fibroscope for camera motion and 3D depth recovery during Minimally Invasive Surgery

This paper introduces a stereoscopic fibroscope imaging system for minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and examines the feasibility of utilizing images transmitted from the distal fibroscope tip to a proximally mounted CCD camera to recover both camera motion and 3D scene information. Fibre image guides facilitate instrument miniaturization and have the advantage of being more easily integrated with articulated robotic instruments. In this paper, twin 10,000 pixel coherent fibre bundles (590mum diameter) have been integrated into a bespoke laparoscopic imaging instrument. Images captured by the system have been used to build a 3D map of the environment and reconstruct the laparoscope´s 3D pose and motion using a SLAM algorithm. Detailed phantom validation of the system demonstrates its practical value and potential for flexible MIS instrument integration due to the small footprint and flexible nature of the fibre image guides.