Real-time 3D visual tracking of laparoscopic instruments for robotized endoscope holder

The robotized endoscope holder in laparoscopic surgery allows a surgeon to control the endoscope without the intervention of an assistant. For providing the more convenient interactions between the surgeon and a robotized endoscope holder, we propose a new method for the automatic 3D-tracking of laparoscopic instruments in real-time. The method is based on the measurement of the 3D positions of the insertion points of the instruments and the strip markers, and the constraints of the depth estimation of the instruments. We present the encouraging results in our experiment, which show that our method is rapid and robust in the simulated laparoscopic surgery.