Waving at the Heart: Implementation of a Kinect-based real-time interactive control system for viewing cineangiogram loops during cardiac catheterization procedures

The quest for a good natural user interface (NUI) between healthcare provider and technology is extremely important and will determine by enlarge its acceptance in clinical practice. Combining human gestures and voice commands may provide an interesting solution for human interaction with high tech clinical equipment. As proof of concept we focused on the setting of the cardiac catheterization laboratory where many interactions are required in reviewing the fluoroscopic cine-recordings. The new Kinect from Windows was used to develop a protocol allowing real-time interaction between the interventional cardiologist and the imaging software of the fluoroscopic image viewer. These interactions were based on single arm gestures to limit interference with invasive procedures. In situations where the cardiologist is unable to free up his hand, voice commands could be activated to execute the required actions. This natural user interface platform improved the efficiency in the catheterization lab.