The FeTouch project

Ultrasound technologies have been widely used in gynecology and obstetrics. Modern ultrasound systems allow the reconstruction of a 3D model of the subject being scanned. Even though visual interfaces have reached very high standards, the problem of representing a 3D image on a 2D computer screen still exists. Moreover, no physical interaction is possible with such model. The FeTouch system, developed at Siena University in the last two years, partially solves such issues by using stereo visual feedback and haptic devices. While the system can be used with any 3D model obtained from ultrasound scans, its current prime use is to allow mothers to interact with a model of the fetus they are carrying. The system, which is freely available on the project web page, has been tested on twelve cases which have been monitored by doctors at Siena Hospital.

[1]  William Schroeder,et al.  The Visualization Toolkit: An Object-Oriented Approach to 3-D Graphics , 1997 .

[2]  Oussama Khatib,et al.  The haptic display of complex graphical environments , 1997, SIGGRAPH.

[3]  H Steiner,et al.  Three-dimensional ultrasound in obstetrics and gynaecology: technique, possibilities and limitations. , 1994, Human reproduction.

[4]  Ricardo S. Avila,et al.  A haptic interaction method for volume visualization , 1996, Proceedings of Seventh Annual IEEE Visualization '96.

[5]  L. Muñoz,et al.  Virtual Laboratory , 2002 .

[6]  T. Bulow.  Spherical diffusion for 3D surface smoothing , 2002, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[7]  D. Downey,et al.  Three-dimensional sonographic reconstruction: techniques and diagnostic applications. , 1993, AJR. American journal of roentgenology.

[8]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  Dynamic local models for stable multi-contact haptic interaction with deformable objects , 2003, 11th Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems, 2003. HAPTICS 2003. Proceedings..

[9]  V. Hayward,et al.  Skeletonization of Volumetric Angiograms for Display , 2002, Computer methods in biomechanics and biomedical engineering.

[10]  A. Staudach,et al.  Diagnostic techniques: Three-dimensional ultrasound in obstetrics and gynaecology: technique, possibilities and limitations , 1994 .

[11]  Arie E. Kaufman,et al.  Voxels as a Computational Representation of Geometry , 1994 .

[12]  Simon Wildermuth,et al.  Patient Specific Surgical Simulation System for Procedures in Colonoscopy , 2001, VMV.

[13]  William E. Lorensen,et al.  Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm , 1987, SIGGRAPH.

[14]  Ming C. Lin,et al.  A framework for fast and accurate collision detection for haptic interaction , 2005, SIGGRAPH Courses.

[15]  Ming C. Lin,et al.  A framework for fast and accurate collision detection for haptic interaction , 1998, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality (Cat. No. 99CB36316).

[16]  M. Levas.  OBBTree : A Hierarchical Structure for Rapid Interference Detection , .

[17]  Thomas Bülow,et al.  Spherical Diffusion for 3D Surface Smoothing , 2004, 3DPVT.

[18]  Richard Prager,et al.  Freehand 3D ultrasound without voxels: volume measurement and visualisation using the Stradx system. , 2002, Ultrasonics.

[19]  William E. Lorensen,et al.  The visualization toolkit (2nd ed.): an object-oriented approach to 3D graphics , 1998 .

[20]  Yutaka Ohtake,et al.  Polyhedral surface smoothing with simultaneous mesh regularization , 2000, Proceedings Geometric Modeling and Processing 2000. Theory and Applications.

[21]  Andrew H. Gee,et al.  Narrow-band volume rendering for freehand 3D ultrasound , 2002, Comput. Graph..

[22]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  A constraint-based god-object method for haptic display , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[23]  Herve Delingette,et al.  Real-Time Elastic Deformations of Soft Tissues for Surgery Simulation , 1999, IEEE Trans. Vis. Comput. Graph..