Surgeons: Operate With Kinect

Nomination for Innovation Award of the Hanze Institute of Technology for Kinect project

One of the students working on an assignment in my group to evaluate the use of the MS Kinect for use in the operating theatre has been nominated for the innovation award of the Hanze Institute of Technology based on this thesis work. The official press release can be found here.

Just a short demonstration video:

The student used the Kinect to allow a surgeon to walk through the data available for a patient using minimal gestures using an easy and intuitive user interface. We are currently trying to arrange the continuation of his project.

Kinect Brain Scan = Augmented Reality for Neurosurgeons

Fantastic Development of using Kinect to look inside the patient. Apparently, the SDK will become available soon. See the IEEE coverage or check-out the youtube movie.
Kinect Brain Scan = Augmented Reality for Neurosurgeons

New and improved gesture based interaction for medical data using MS Kinect

The guys at iHealthLab in Italy further improved their gesture based interaction system for medical data using the Kinect. They have included interaction with 3D visualizations and all kinds of other cool features. Check it out at their website.

Using the Microsoft Kinect for Patient Size Estimation and Radiation Dose Normalization: Proof of Concept and Initial Validation

An alternative way to use the kinect camera to estimate patient size and normalize the patient dose will be presented at the SIIM 2012. 

The authors conclude that as the need for more accurate dose monitoring increases, the best surrogates for patient size are being sought. While weight and body mass index are easily obtained, they do not always provide an accurate estimate of patient size, particularly of the region of the patient being imaged. Using the preliminary results from this novel method for estimating patient size, we can work towards more accurate means of estimating patient volume. These improved estimates of patient size can ultimately be used to correct CT dose estimates to better reflect both regional and global patient body habitus as well as patient positioning within the scanner bore. Ultimately, more accurate dose estimation improves care of our radiology patients by supplementing and improving the information that radiologists and non-radiologist physicians can use to order and protocol imaging studies appropriately.
The abstract can be found here.

Kinect imaging lets surgeons keep their focus - tech - 17 May 2012 - New Scientist

THE surgeon enters the operating theatre, covered in sterile blue scrubs. Machines beep and hiss. Nurses wait, tools at the ready: scalpel, forceps, bandage, Xbox... Xbox?

On Tuesday last week, a surgeon at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital in London began trials of a new device that uses an Xbox Kinect camera to sense body position. Just by waving his arms the surgeon can consult and sift through medical images, such as CT scans or real-time X-rays, while in the middle of an operation.

Read the full article at:

Kinect imaging lets surgeons keep their focus - tech - 17 May 2012 - New Scientist

Interaction Beyond the Keyboard

IEEE Computing Now features an article on interaction beyond the keyboard. In this article Albrecht Schmidt from the University of Stuttgart, Germany and Elizabeth Churchill from Yahoo Research explore possibilities to replace the conventional mouse and keyboard to achieve a more intuitive and versatile way of interacting with computers to explore the world of online communications and information access.

Kinect based medical image exploration

The author directed me to this movie in a comment on an earlier post on their previous system using the wii remote. Now they have a gesture based system using the kinect. Looks fantastic and very versatile.

Gesture based control of AquariusNET using Kinect

Using the Kinect with the TeraRecon AquariusNET software. I'm only wondering how they change between the different operations since they do not show that. Probably they change the function using the mouse and then interact again with gestures.

KineMed - Gestural interface for Philips iSite

Developing a gestural user interface for examination of medical images using the Kinect. This project was done in association with residents from UPMC, Pittsburgh and was demonstrated at RSNA, 2011

Kinect and Medical Imaging

This is the first time that I really see some kind of workflow using gesture based interfaces. Most only interact with already selected data, here the selection of the data is also included.


Josh Wall from the InfoStrat Adavanced Technology Group demos a medical imaging application that uses the InfoStrat Motion Framework

Gesture Interface using Kinect for Medical Imaging Visualization in Surgeries

This work was developed in the Renato Archer Center for Information Technogy - CTI (www.cti.gov.br) in Campinas - SP, Brazil (3D Technologies Division) published at the 5th International Conference on Advanced Research in Virtual and Rapid Prototyping (VRAP2001).  The system allows the surgeon to control the medical imaging software InVesalius (also developed by CTI) without any physical contact, just by hand gestures. The system uses the OpenNI/NITE framework and is cross-platform (Windows/Linux).  Invesalius website: http://svn.softwarepublico.gov.br/trac/invesalius

Mirracle - Using Microsoft Kinect for interactive, augmented reality, anatomy education

Research groups at the technical university Munchen in Germany have developed an augmented reality system to study anatomy.

Their second version of the augmented reality magic mirror uses the Microsoft Kinect to detect a user standing in front of a screen. Subsequently, augmented reality is used to overlay a volume visualization of a CT onto the user. Using gestures the user can select 2D slices. The prototype was presented at the open day of Klinikum Ingolstadt. For more info see www.mirracle.de

Great development for education, but it also might find its way into clinical practice.