A hand-eye calibration method for augmented reality applied to computer-assisted orthopedic surgery

Area of Science:

• Medical imaging and visualization
• Surgical navigation systems
• Augmented reality (AR) in medicine

Background:

• Augmented reality (AR) enables surgeons to overlay holographic patient anatomy and instruments onto the physical surgical field.
• Accurate superimposition of virtual and physical objects is critical for effective AR-assisted surgery.
• Existing methods require precise mapping between virtual and physical spaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel hand-eye (HE) calibration method for AR surgical applications.
• To establish a reliable and accurate spatiotemporal mapping between virtual camera and physical space.
• To enhance the precision of holographic representations in the physical world.

Main Methods:

• Derived mathematical relationships defining the transformation between the virtual camera and the physical environment.
• Developed a hand-eye (HE) calibration technique to establish this mapping.
• Conducted qualitative and quantitative evaluations to assess the accuracy and robustness of the calibration method.

Main Results:

• The proposed HE calibration method successfully determines an optimal invariant spatiotemporal mapping.
• This mapping accurately aligns virtual elements with the physical space.
• The method demonstrates robustness in establishing the physical-virtual transformation.

Conclusions:

• The developed HE calibration method provides reliable and accurate physical-virtual mapping transformations.
• This enables precise overlay of imaging data and surgical instrument holograms in the physical space.
• The findings support the advancement of AR technologies for enhanced surgical precision and visualization.