3D reconstruction of the operating field for image overlay in 3D-endoscopic surgery

Building a 3D model of the operating field is the first stage to access the registration of pre-operative surface models in a per-operative context. We propose a method to learn the 3D model of the organs observed by a stereoscopic endoscope. This method is general and requires no a priori knowledge of the position of the instruments, whether robotized or manually-controlled, present in the field of view. The result of the learning process allows the removal of the instruments front the surgeon's field of view: "diminished reality". This work prefigures the 3D integration by augmented reality of a preoperative organs model (e.g. arteries) in stereoscopic images. Experiments are currently being performed to validate our approach using endoscopic sequences from the da Vinci/sup TM/ surgical system.