Direct Calibration of Endoscopic Camera for Image Overlay - The 1st Report: Basic concept and ex-vivo experiments

摘要

We propose a novel method for endoscopic image overlay. The proposed method requires neither pre-operative camera calibration nor intra-operative endoscopic camera tracking. Using our method, the world-to-endoscopic image transformation can be directly calculated in an intra-operative stage. The calibration protocol is flexible and applicable to a varietry of endoscopic cameras such as oblique-viewing/sideviewing endoscopic cameras, and easily usable in the operating room. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, we developed a simple endoscopic image overlay system and an ex vivo experiment was carried out for five subjects. As a result, the reprojection error was less than 8 pixels.