3D Reconstruction and Augmented Reality in Bronchoscopic Intervention

The use of stereoscopic visualization has recently been proposed for many applications. Other than for entertain-ment, stereo viewing is being proposed for robotics and medical teleoperation. This paper proposes to exploit the stereo-camera setup available in stereo-viewing systems for 3D reconstruction. We focus on medical endoscopic applications. The advantages of having a reconstructed vision-based depth map during endoscopic navigation and intervention are many, including the possibility for generation of an augmented-reality visual scenario to support surgeons during interventions. We ran our experiments on a realistic graphic model of human bronchus to study feasibility of the proposed concept. We reconstructed depth maps of a bronchus environment and used them to generate augmented reality views of the observed scenes.