Robot-Assisted Medical Visualization with Floating Images

Accessing volumetric medical data requires advanced visualization techniques. One approach is to show slices in situ, by projecting images into space at the proper position. We propose using floating images, that is, undistorted real images of displays, appearing at the desired position and orientation. Such floating images are made possible by the new optical device eDCRA´ invented at NICT in Japan. To enhance the freedom of the user, we have developed a robot-assisted interactive visualization system, where the user can ehold´ the image slice in her/his hand, and freely change its position and orientation, thus inspect any part of the volumetric data set as desired. The hand position is detected by a stereo camera and image processing. We describe the structure and operation of our system, and show samples of its usage.