Interactive medical volume visulization for surgical operations

In this thesis, "A Surgeon Assistance System", which can be used in surgery, surgical planning, and education, has been designed. The main idea lying in this approach is to equip the surgeon with a Head Mounted Display (HMD), a camera, and a powerful computer system, and overlay all information, which may required during the operation, on the real-time video signal acquired from operation area. The system processes pre-scanned two and three-dimensional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and CT (Computed Tomography) data and other real-time vital signs of the patients. The processing phase consists of pre-processing routines such as noise cancellation and thresholding. Processing stage consists of segmentation for tissue classification for MRI; triangulation in order to create three dimensional surfaces for both MRI and CT, and finally, three dimensional visualization routines by using OpenGL library. Also, one and two-dimensional information can be displayed instead of three-dimensional views. By the help of this approach, it is expected that, the success rate of the surgery can be increased, concentration of the surgeon may be save during all operation, the operation time may be decreased, and more efficient surgery planning possibilities can obtained. This work is also the first step for telemedicine system, which includes remote actions in medicine.