Laser-pointing endoscope system for intra-operative 3D geometric registration

Precise measurements of geometry should accompany robotic equipments in operating rooms if their advantages are further pursued. For deforming organs including a liver, intraoperative geometric measurements play an essential role in computer surgery in addition to pre-operative geometric information from CT, MRI and so on. We developed a laser-pointing endoscope using an optical galvano scanner and a 955fps high-speed camera. The laser-pointing endoscope system acquires and visualizes the shape of the area of interest in a flash of time. Applications of the system also include the touch screen interface for non-master-slave operation of surgical robots, where the 3D coordinates of the touched point on screen are measured by the system and guide a robot. Results of in-vivo experiments on a liver of pig verify the effectiveness of the proposed system.