REAL-TIME DEPTH ESTIMATION FROM MONOCULAR ENDOSCOPE IMAGES
First Claim
1. A minimally invasive surgical system (10), comprising:
- an endoscope (20) for generating a plurality of endoscopic video frames (22) as the endoscope (20) is advanced to a target location within an anatomical region of a body, the endoscopic video frames (22) illustrating monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region; and
an endoscopic surgical control unit (30) in communication with the endoscope (20) to receive the endoscopic video frames (22) as the endoscope (20) is advanced to the target location,wherein the endoscopic surgical control unit (30) is operable to estimate a depth field (36) indicative of a depth of an object within the monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region as a function of an optical flow of at least one image point within a frame time series of the monocular endoscopic image of the anatomical region.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An endoscopic surgical method involves an advancement of an endoscope (20) to a target location within an anatomical region of a body and a generation of a plurality of endoscopic video frames (22) as the endoscope (20) is advanced to the target location with the endoscopic video frames (2) illustrating monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region. For real-time estimation of a depth of an object within monocular endoscopic images (e.g., depth of a bronchial wall within an monocular endoscopic images of a bronchial tube), the method further involves (S41) a determination of an optical flow of one or more image points within a frame time series of the monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region, and (S42) an estimation of a depth field indicative of a depth of the object within the monocular endoscopic images as a function of the optical flow of the image point(s).
-
Citations
15 Claims
-
1. A minimally invasive surgical system (10), comprising:
-
an endoscope (20) for generating a plurality of endoscopic video frames (22) as the endoscope (20) is advanced to a target location within an anatomical region of a body, the endoscopic video frames (22) illustrating monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region; and an endoscopic surgical control unit (30) in communication with the endoscope (20) to receive the endoscopic video frames (22) as the endoscope (20) is advanced to the target location, wherein the endoscopic surgical control unit (30) is operable to estimate a depth field (36) indicative of a depth of an object within the monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region as a function of an optical flow of at least one image point within a frame time series of the monocular endoscopic image of the anatomical region. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. An endoscopic surgical method, comprising:
-
advancing an endoscope (20) to a target location within an anatomical region of a body; generating a plurality of endoscopic video frames (22) as the endoscope (20) is advanced to the target location, the endoscopic video frames (22) illustrating a monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region; (S41) determining an optical flow of at least one image point within a frame time series of the monocular endoscopic images of the anatomical region; and (S42) estimating a depth field indicative of a depth of an object within the monocular endoscopic images as a function of the optical flow of the at least one image point. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
Specification