Virtual and Augmented Reality for Surgical Guidance

When: Thursday, November 7, 2013
Where: PGH 563
Time: 11:00 AM

Speaker: 

Prof. Stephane Nicolau, IRCAD-France

Host: Prof. Marc Garbey

Imaging quality and accuracy of the human body (MRI, CT, US, PET) currently enable practitioners to establish a very precise diagnosis and to plan surgical interventions (open and coelioscopic surgery). Furthermore, from CT-scan or MRI sections, the latest systems allow to display organs and pathological structures of patients in 3D, thus easing the spatial understanding of practitioners. However, fully exploiting this precious information remains a challenge.

In this presentation, I will firstly explain how 3D patient model can be used to improve surgical planning. Secondly, several examples of simulation software to practice percutaneous punctures and general surgery will be described. In this part, I will especially raise the issues that computer scientist are currently facing, which prevent from providing sufficiently realistic simulators. Finally, I will give an overview of the latest technologies that aim at providing augmented reality guidance during laparoscopic surgery, and the main problems that still need to be overcome.

Bio:
Stéphane Nicolau was born on 25th January 1978. In 2000, he obtained his engineer diploma of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Strasbourg (ENSPS recently renamed Telecom Physic Strasbourg). He then furthered his academic studies and made a PhD at INRIA Sophia-Antipolis under the supervision of Nicholas Ayache, head of the ASCLEPIOS team (former EPIDAURE). He obtained his PhD in 2004 and joined the Virtual Reality team of the Institut de Recherche contre les Cancers de l’Appareil Digestif in Strasbourg (IRCAD) as a researcher. In 2009, he becomes in IRCAD TAIWAN the leader of the new research team in medical imaging. He came back to IRCAD France in 2011 and currently supervises the research team. His main fields of interest include medical augmented reality, medical image processing, 3D modelling of anatomical deformations, calibration of vision systems, and validation of medical guidance systems.