Video-Based Tracking of Laparoscopic Instruments Using an Orthogonal Webcams System

This paper presents a system for tracking the movement of laparoscopic instruments which is based on an orthogonal system of webcams and video image processing. The movements are captured with two webcams placed orthogonally inside of the physical trainer. On the image, the instruments were detected by using color markers placed on the distal tip of each instrument. The 3D position of the tip of the instrument within the work space was obtained by linear triangulation method. Preliminary results showed linearity and repeatability in the motion tracking with a resolution of 0.616mm in each axis; the accuracy of the system showed a 3D instrument positioning error of 1.009 ± 0.10 1mm. This tool is a portable and low&cost alternative to trad itional tracking devices and a trustable method for the objective evaluation of the surgeon's surgical skills.

[1]  Daniel J Scott,et al.  Design of a Proficiency-Based Skills Training Curriculum for the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery , 2007, Surgical innovation.

[2]  Zhengyou Zhang,et al.  A Flexible New Technique for Camera Calibration , 2000, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[3]  Richard J. Prokop,et al.  A survey of moment-based techniques for unoccluded object representation and recognition , 1992, CVGIP Graph. Model. Image Process..

[4]  Gerd Hirzinger,et al.  Automatic tracking of laparoscopic instruments by color coding , 1997, CVRMed.

[5]  Rajiv Gupta,et al.  Stereo from uncalibrated cameras , 1992, Proceedings 1992 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[6]  Daniel Lorias Espinoza,et al.  Millimetric laparoscopic surgery training on a physical trainer using rats , 2007, Surgical Endoscopy.

[7]  J. A. Sánchez-Margallo,et al.  EVA: Laparoscopic Instrument Tracking Based on Endoscopic Video Analysis for Psychomotor Skills Assessment , 2013, Surgical Endoscopy.

[8]  Novel Laparoscopic Home Trainer , 2007, Surgical laparoscopy, endoscopy & percutaneous techniques.

[9]  G. Fried,et al.  The MISTELS program to measure technical skill in laparoscopic surgery , 2006, Surgical Endoscopy And Other Interventional Techniques.

[10]  Rein van den Boomgaard,et al.  Methods for fast morphological image transforms using bitmapped binary images , 1992, CVGIP Graph. Model. Image Process..

[11]  Petros Faloutsos,et al.  Visual Tracking of Laparoscopic Instruments in Standard Training Environments , 2011, MMVR.

[12]  Stephane Cotin,et al.  Metrics for Laparoscopic Skills Trainers: The Weakest Link! , 2002, MICCAI.

[13]  Woojin Ahn,et al.  Development of the VBLaST™: a virtual basic laparoscopic skill trainer , 2008, The international journal of medical robotics + computer assisted surgery : MRCAS.

[14]  A. G. Gallagher,et al.  Construct validation of the ProMIS simulator using a novel laparoscopic suturing task , 2005, Surgical Endoscopy And Other Interventional Techniques.