Automatic iOCT Positioning During Membrane Peeling via Real-time High Resolution Surgical Forceps Tracking

During membrane peeling, the intraoperative OCT (iOCT) has to be positioned manually, which may be time consuming and distracting from the actual procedure. By automatically repositioning according to the position of forceps tips, this step can be avoided. Compared to rigid instruments such as diamond dusted tools, the robust tracking of the forceps is considerably more challenging due to partial occlusions and pose variations, i.e. opening and closing movement. We introduce a novel method for automatic repositioning of the iOCT by analyzing the surgeon’s maneuver based on a real-time, precise tracking of the tool tips in the co-registered microscopic view. The developed algorithm is robust to different shapes of the available forceps in the market as well as the field of view and microscope zoom.     «

During membrane peeling, the intraoperative OCT (iOCT) has to be positioned manually, which may be time consuming and distracting from the actual procedure. By automatically repositioning according to the position of forceps tips, this step can be avoided. Compared to rigid instruments such as diamond dusted tools, the robust tracking of the forceps is considerably more challenging due to partial occlusions and pose variations, i.e. opening and closing movement. We introduce a novel method for a...     »