3-D Software for 'Virtual Surgery'

Roland Piquepaille writes "Computer scientists at Brigham Young University (BYU) have developed a new software tool to perform 'virtual surgery'. This tool, dubbed 'Live Surface,' will allow surgeons to visualize in 3-D any part of a patient's anatomy with just a few clicks of a mouse. Similar software already exists, but according to the Deseret Morning News, Live Surface is interactive and fast. This software can be used for better diagnosis by physicians, but it might even suppress the need for some exploratory surgeries. The researchers add that Live Surface might even been used for special-effects in movies or games by extracting an actor's performance from a video clip."

Comments

A pioneer

[Lindsay Lohan]

I've been visualizing human anatomy in 3-D for many years.

Re:A pioneer

[Lindsay Lohan]

Sorry to disappoint, but I am in reality a pathetic, overweight middle-aged man, a hairy stretchmarked gut resting my greasy keyboard as I write this, chewing Nicorette and choking down a few hotpockets.

But if you want, we can still trade emails?

Re:A pioneer

[andrewman327]

Dad?!?

Yeah, its us.

[engagebot]

Yeah, this already does exist. Because we make it. www.meti.com

We have a laproscopic surgery simulator for a mere $40k that will totally blow your mind. You can learn to stitch, tie knots, remove gall bladders, the works.

So far today...

[Apocalypse111]

Ok, so today we've had stories on how to do 3D Virtual Reconstructions of places or environments and now 3D visualization of people's internals. All we're missing is an article on holograms.

I want my freakin' holodeck!

So we'll soon have photoshop for the body.

[w33t]

I can see Doctors of the future using the magenetic-lasso to extract tumors more easily.

We can only imagine, however, what the clone tool will be used for.

Machine shop for the body?

[The Great Pretender]

Here we go: You scan an MRI, feed it in to the computer. Some Dr. on his sail-boat looks at the MRI identifies the area to be removed, and does a virtual surgery. The virtual surgery goes into the computer. The patient gets prepped, goes into surgery, a robot surgen following the 'virtual surgery' removes the offending piece.

It all sounds so nice and efficient, but I can see so many things were this could go horribly wrong. I for one will be sticking with the over-worked, stim-taking resident who will be standing by my body. I don't feel comfortable with the medical industry moving in the same direction as the car manufacturing industry.

BYU press release link with more media and info

[Pvt_Waldo]

There is a press release right here from BYU that has links to various videos and other media. Can't seem to find any papers or articles about the process, though I noticed it's being patented so there may not be a lot available (?)

Re:BYU press release link with more media and info

[grammar fascist]

Can't seem to find any papers or articles about the process, though I noticed it's being patented so there may not be a lot available (?)

Having taken a vision class from Dr. Barrett (CS 750 at BYU), I can fill in some details. I might be able to dig up the paper later. I think you can find it in the latest SIGGRAPH proceedings - dunno if Citeseer has indexed it yet.

It's a segmentation algorithm that works well and fast in 3D images. It uses a graph-cut algorithm to classify voxels as inside or outside whatever you're trying to isolate. You (the doctor) lay down "seed" voxels with a mouse, clicky-clicky, and a few seconds later, the algorithm has isolated the structure. For example, say you want to isolate bone. Hold down the mouse button and move it over the bone. Hold down the other and move it over non-bone. If the algorithm makes a mistake, make some more seed voxels.

This is nothing new so far - the CV folks have been segmenting with graph-cut for ages. The problem is that it's very, very slow - minutes for a single segmentation. Barrett and Armstrong have developed a hierarchical version of the algorithm that uses watershed regions to presegment, and merges them as it runs. Doing graph-cut on large regions is a lot faster than doing it on single voxels. Their stuff is the first interactive speed, seeded 3D segmentation algorithm that produces quality results.

I saw the demo in class. It was really rather impressive, if you're familiar with the subject area.

Does it have Clippy?

[Rob T Firefly]

Hey, it looks like you're perfoming a coronary artery bypass operation!

Would you like to:

• Obtain a suitable transplant from the greater saphenous vein?
• Overcharge the patient's laughable insurance?
• Get in a quick few strokes on the back nine before the operation?
• Play golf instead?

BSOD

[TheAngryMob]

A system crash would give new meaning to "Blue Screen of Death."

old ideas, new clothes

[noneme]

Virtural surgery is not a new concept...I remember being in Junior High School and having the option in science class to disect a frog or to use a program on a 386 to move around .bmp's of a frog's anatomy.

The 3D model is an interesting way to put the MRI / CAT data on a computer screen (and far better than the .bmp's of a frog's organs) but what advantage (besides eye-candy) does this offer over looking at the raw MRI or CAT results?

One thing that could make this a great learning tool is an interesting interface that would help one practice a surgery with something more than a mouse or touch screen. Nintendo and Altus have already created a toy that does this, a far more intricate and realisitic version could be of use: http://ds.ign.com/objects/695/695152.html

my own 3D anatomy

[deathcow]

I went through the stages to donate part of my liver to my infant daughter in 2005. Washington University medical took a full torso cat scan of me, and then gave me a copy of the CD on the way out the door! (I did have to ask for it.)

So I take the CD, and find it has 3D visualization software on it. I ran it and told it to load all the cat scan slices. After it thought about things for a minute, Pow! Full 3D rotatable torso, I could dive in/out up/down whatever. I could change various colors and such to help see embedded structures like biliary tracts of the liver, or the tracts inside the kidneys.

Having been so close to a high end medical operation like a liver transplant for several months, I saw some wicked imaging tools. The ultrasounds they use to monitor my daughters new liver actually colors all the blood flow in blue and red (i.e. venous and arterial, though it is arbitrarily selected I understand) and you can move a trackball around to measure the instantaneous velocity of bloodflow in various veins or arteries in cm/sec with the click of a button.

You can bet that in 20-30 years this stuff is going to be VERY high end and we're going to stand a lot better chance at surviving some bad stuff. "Watch now! The nanobots are just reaching the clogged vessel as we speak, and you can see the bloodflow is already up by 1%, yes look here they have begun to expel the media into the colon!"