3D Visual Tracking of the Beating Heart Motion
Introduction:
With the advent of robotic assistants for Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), a demand for the design of efficient motion compensation systems was created. In this context, vision-based techniques offer a practical solution to retrieve the beating heart motion since they do not require the introduction of additional sensors in the limited workspace.
Videos:
Publications:
- Richa R., Bo, A. P. L., Poignet P., “Towards robust 3D visual tracking for motion compensation in beating heart surgery ”, MEDIA, 2011.
- Richa R., Bo, A. P. L., Poignet P., “Robust 3D Visual Tracking for Robotic-assisted Cardiac Interventions”, (MICCAI '10)
- Richa R., Poignet P., Liu C., “Three-dimensional motion tracking for beating heart surgery using a thin-plate spline deformable model”, IJRR, 2010.
- Richa R., Poignet P., Liu C., “Efficient 3D Tracking for Motion Compensation in Beating Heart Surgery” , (MICCAI '08)
- Richa R., Poignet P., Liu C., “Deformable Motion Tracking of the Heart Surface”, (IROS '08)
Predicting the Heart Motion for Robust Visual Tracking
Introduction:
The design of a motion compensation system requires the accurate measurement of the heart motion, which can be achieved using computer vision techniques for tracking cardiac structures on the heart surface. However, most works in the literature focus on the representation and localization of cardiac structures while few explore their motion dynamics.
Videos:
Publications:
- Richa R., Bo, A. P. L., Poignet P., “Towards robust 3D visual tracking for motion compensation in beating heart surgery ”, MEDIA, 2011.
- Richa R., Bo, A. P. L., Poignet P., “Beating heart motion prediction for robust visual tracking”, (ICRA '10)
- Richa R., Bo, A. P. L., Poignet P., “Motion Prediction for Tracking the Beating Heart”, (EMBC '08)
Head tracking for Human-Computer Interaction
Introduction:
In partnership with Carlos Wellington and Antonio Bo from the Robotics and Automation Lab @ UnB, we are currently developing a low-cost vision-based head tracking system for improved human-computer interaction. The goal is to replace standard mechanical buttons commonly used by patients with motor disabilities and enable faster interactions with a computer assistant.
Videos:
Publications:
- Gonçalves C., Bo Antônio, Richa R., "Tracking Head Movement for Augmentative and Alternative Communication", in Simpósio Brasileiro de Automação Inteligente (SBAI'13), Fortaleza, Brazil, 2013. [pdf]
Visual Tracking of Surgical Tools for Proximity Detection in Retinal Surgery
Introduction:
In retinal surgery, surgeons face difficulties such as indirect visualization of surgical targets, physiological tremor and lack of tactile feedback. Such difficulties increase the risks of incorrect surgical gestures which may cause retinal damage. In this context, robotic assistance has the potential to overcome current technical limitations, increasing surgical safety. In this paper we present a method for robustly tracking surgical tools in retinal surgery for unintentional collision detection. An image similarity function based on weighted mutual information is specially tailored for tracking a surgical tool under critical illumination variations, lens distortions, and rapid motion. The proposed method was tested on challenging conditions using a phantom eye and recorded human in vivo data acquired by an ophthalmic stereo microscope.
Videos:
Publications:
- Richa R., Balicki M., Sznitman R., Meisner E., Taylor R., Hager, G., “Visual Tracking of Surgical Tools for Proximity Detection in Retinal Surgery”, (IPCAI '11)
- Richa R., Balicki M., Sznitman R., Meisner E., Taylor R., Hager, G., “Vision-based Proximity Detection in Retinal Surgery”, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (TBME), 2012.