Skip to main content
Log in

Touchless gesture user interface for interactive image visualization in urological surgery

  • Original Article
  • Published:
World Journal of Urology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

In the operating room (OR) a touchless interface is an ideal solution since it does not demand any physical contact and still can provide the necessary control features in a cleansed and sterilized environment.

Methods

Using open-source software libraries and image processing techniques, we implemented a hand tracking and gesture recognition system based on the Kinect device that enables surgeon to successfully touchlessly navigate through the image in the intraoperative setting through a personal computer. We used the InVesalius software, which provides high-quality 3D reconstruction of medical images.

Results

Computed tomography data were intraoperatively fruitfully accessed through a simple and cheap solution in 4 tumor enucleations in 3 male patients in whom elective nephron-sparing surgeries were performed for small non-exophitic tumors. Mean tumor length was 2.7 cm (2.1, 2.7, 2.9 and 3.1 cm), and real-time ultrasound was not necessary for intraoperative identification in 3 of 4 endorenal tumors. All pathological reports revealed renal cell carcinoma, Fuhrman grade I, and negative inked surgical margins. No intra- or postoperative complication was reported.

Conclusions

For the first time in the literature, a touchless user interface solution applying the Kinect device showed to be very efficient and enabled a low-cost and accurate control of the software InVesalius intraoperative, just using hand gestures. It can be used with any mouse-controlled software, opening an avenue for potential applications in many other areas, such as data visualization, augmented reality, accessibility, and robotics. The further validation and advancement of this technology are underway.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kadobayashi R, Nishimoto K, Mase K (1998) Design and evaluation of gesture interface of an immersive walk-through application for exploring cyberspace. 3rd IEEE international conference on digital object identifier

  2. Keskin C, Aran O, Akarun L (2005) Real time gestural interface for generic applications. European signal processing conference

  3. Knudsen BE, Campbell G, Kennedy A et al (2005) Design of functional simulation of renal cancer in virtual reality environments. Urology 66(4):732–735

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. In Vesalius Medical Image Software. http://svn.softwarepublico.gov.br/trac/invesalius

  5. Kinect Official Web Site. http://www.xbox.com/kinect/

  6. Kinect (Wikipedia, 21 June 2011 22:26). http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kinect&oldid=435540952

  7. Agarwal A, Triggs B (2006) Recovering 3D human pose from monocular images. IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 28(1):44–58. doi:10.1109/TPAMI.2006.21. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=1542030&isnumber=32932

    Google Scholar 

  8. Gonzalez R, Woods R (2007) Digital image processing, 3rd edn. Prentice-hall, New York

  9. Product Technology: The PrimeSensor™ Technology. http://www.primesense.com/?p=487

  10. Chang YJ, Chen SF, Huang JD (2011) A kinect-based system for physical rehabilitation: a pilot study for young adults with motor disabilities. Res Dev Disabil 32(6):2566–2570

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leonardo Oliveira Reis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ruppert, G.C.S., Reis, L.O., Amorim, P.H.J. et al. Touchless gesture user interface for interactive image visualization in urological surgery. World J Urol 30, 687–691 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-012-0879-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-012-0879-0

Keywords

Navigation