2000 Volume 2 Issue 2 Pages 62-68
Endoscope is one of the important tools in minimal invasive surgery. The field-of-view (FOV) of the endoscope is, however, quite limited. Improvident operations of the endoscope can result in missing important anatomical landmarks orlesions. Using image processing and computer graphics techniques, we have developed a virtual expansion system of theendoscopic view. A peripheral area of the endoscopic image is continuously digitized and memorized. This series of memorized images is then seamlessly displayed outside the live image. We used two visualization methods, 'static real-FOV'and'dynamic real-FOV'for real endoscopic images. Our system is applicable to any kind of optical instruments forsurgical use to assist the surgeon's visual cognition.
