An effective visualization technique for depth perception in augmented reality‐based surgical navigation

Abstract

We confirmed that depth perception in AR could be improved by the proposed seamless switching between AR and VR, and providing an indication of the minimum distance also facilitated the surgical tasks.

Supporting fibula free flap harvest with augmented reality: A proof‐of‐concept study

“…This latter disadvantage plausibly could be eliminated with the implementation of AR technology and superimposition of the VSP components or positions of the anatomical structures directly onto the surgeon's visual field. Many researchers tried to implement the AR‐based technologies to the head and neck surgery, primarily to support oncological and orthognathic procedures …”

“…Fortunately, in the current era of rapid progress in AR display hardware, these issues are likely to be solved in the nearest future . The last serious challenge is the improvement of the algorithms that provide an accurate fusion of the real and virtual surgical field images and those optimizing the depth perception and 3D vision . Furthermore, one should consider that AR technology is not necessarily suitable for all surgeons because some of its users reported nausea, headache, and vertigo …”

Augmented Reality in Medicine

“…In AR tracking, the relative position of an object on the basis of the camera position is generally calculated. When given a calibrated camera with known intrinsic parameters, the relative position can be determined as a set of three or more paired points between the 3D and projected 2D coordinates [11,12,[16][17][18].…”

“…However, although AR provides more intuitive visual information, inaccurate depth perception is a major issue. To improve the depth perception, an integrated VR and AR system was proposed that displayed in a single window with aligned view axes and provided the distance between surgical instruments and target organs [18].…”

“…6, the transformation ( o c T) between the camera and patient is calculated by an optical tracker, and is updated with tracking data in real time. The visualization section used an open source visualization library and graphic processing unit(GPU) based depth peeling technique to display translucent objects [18].…”