Overlay of patient-specific anatomical data for advanced navigation in surgery simulation

This paper introduces a method to integrate patient specific anatomical image data into our surgery simulation. The image data can be used to plan the next steps within the simulated surgery intervention. The anatomical images are presented with in anatomical directions, but also plane parallel and orthogonal. The camera orthogonal view is intended to give an overview over the operational field and to explore the anatomical structures for the current point of view. The plane parallel view is used to recognize changes of tissue in the direction of infiltration to avoid injuries during interaction. We support basic histogram manipulation and augmentation in real time by using advanced rendering techniques, no additional computation time is required during rendering. The presented method supports apprenticeship and training of surgeons when interacting within a simulated intervention, but is also useful for the training of the interpretation of the medical images, because the anatomical data and the related images can be explored without any risk to the patient. With the introduction of target points to mark and augment regions of interests we support advanced guidance to those points, whereas the location of the augmentation is visible within multiple viewports.