Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 18, 2026
Technical Approach for Infrared Tracking for Soft Tissue Navigation with a Holographic Head-Mounted Display and Preclinical Validation
Published on: September 2, 2025
On-patient see-through augmented reality based on visual SLAM
Nader Mahmoud1,2, Óscar G Grasa3, Stéphane A Nicolau3
1IRCAD (Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l'Appareil Digestif), Strasbourg, France. nader-mahmoud.ali@etu.unistra.fr.
Purpose:
An augmented reality system to visualize a 3D preoperative anatomical model on intra-operative patient is proposed. The hardware requirement is commercial tablet-PC equipped with a camera. Thus, no external tracking device nor artificial landmarks on the patient are required.
Methods:
We resort to visual SLAM to provide markerless real-time tablet-PC camera location with respect to the patient. The preoperative model is registered with respect to the patient through 4-6 anchor points. The anchors correspond to anatomical references selected on the tablet-PC screen at the beginning of the procedure.
Results:
Accurate and real-time preoperative model alignment (approximately 5-mm mean FRE and TRE) was achieved, even when anchors were not visible in the current field of view. The system has been experimentally validated on human volunteers, in vivo pigs and a phantom.
Conclusions:
The proposed system can be smoothly integrated into the surgical workflow because it: (1) operates in real time, (2) requires minimal additional hardware only a tablet-PC with camera, (3) is robust to occlusion, (4) requires minimal interaction from the medical staff.
