VR assisted surgery planning

We are developing a system called the virtual reality assisted surgery program (VRASP) for implementation in the hospital operating room (OR). VRASP will give the surgeon flexible intraoperatively computational support. It will permit modification and control of very large scan data sets in real time. It will render and transmit virtual imagery in response to the surgeon's commands without interfering with normal surgical activities. And it will register the displayed imagery simultaneously with respect to the surgeon and the patient, without perceptible computing or display lag. VRASP is being developed specifically to assist surgeons during craniofacial, neurologic, orthopedic, thoracic, and urologic surgery. VRASP will enable surgeons to interactively visualize 3D renderings of CT and MRI data with hands-free manipulation of the virtual display. The surgeon will be able to scale, orient, and position prescanned body imagery on-line in real time from any desired perspective. The clinical goal is dynamic fusing of 3D body scan data with the actual patient in the OR. The customized interface will permit ready on-line access to the preoperative plan and to update measurement and analysis based on the real time OR data.