Medical Augmented-Reality Visualizer for Surgical Training and Education in Medicine

Abstract

This paper presents a projection-based augmented-reality system (MARVIS) that supports the visualization of internal structures on the surface of a liver phantom. MARVIS is endowed with three key features: tracking of spatial relationship between the phantom and the operator’s head in real time, monoscopic projection of internal liver structures onto the phantom surface for 3D perception without additional head-mounted devices, and phantom internal electronic circuit to assess the accuracy of a syringe guidance system. An initial validation was carried out by 25 medical students (12 males and 13 females; mean age, 23.12 years; SD, 1.27 years) and 3 male surgeons (mean age, 43.66 years; SD, 7.57 years). The validation results show that the ratio of failed syringe insertions was reduced from 50% to 30% by adopting the MARVIS projection. The proposed system suitably enhances a surgeon’s spatial perception of a phantom internal structure.