Super resolution in robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery

Abstract

In minimally invasive surgery, a small field of view is often required to achieve a large magnification factor during micro-scale tasks such as coronary anastomosis. However, constantly changing the orientation and focal length of the laparoscope camera is cumbersome, and can impose extra visual and cognitive load on the operating surgeon in terms of realigning the visual pathways and anatomical landmarks. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of fixational movements in robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery, such that the perceived resolution of the foveal field of view is greater than the intrinsic resolution of the laparoscope camera. The proposed technique is based on super resolution imaging using projection onto convex sets for monochrome images, and a maximum a posteriori method with a novel YIQ space-based prior for color images. Validation with both phantom and in vivo data from totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass surgery is provided.