Exploring Visuo-Haptic Augmented Reality User Interfaces for Stereo-Tactic Neurosurgery Planning

Ulrich Eck, Philipp Stefan, Hamid Laga, Christian Sandor, Pascal Fallavollita, Nassir Navab

Abstract: Stereo-tactic neurosurgery planning is a time-consuming and complex task that requires detailed understanding of the patient anatomy and the affected regions in the brain to precisely deliver the treatment and to avoid proximity to any known risk structures. Traditional user interfaces for neurosurgery planning use keyboard and mouse for interaction and visualize the medical data on a screen. Previous research, however, has shown that 3D user interfaces are more intuitive for navigating volumetric data and enable users to understand spatial relations more quickly. Furthermore, new imaging modalities and automated segmentation of relevant structures provide important information to medical experts. However, displaying such information requires frequent context switches or occludes otherwise important information.