Segmentation and 3D Reconstruction Approaches for the Design of Laparoscopic Augmented Reality Environments

A trend in abdominal surgery is the transition from minimally invasive surgery to surgeries where augmented reality is used. Endoscopic video images are proposed to be employed for extracting useful information to help surgeons performing the operating techniques. This work introduces an illumination model into the design of automatic segmentation algorithms and 3D reconstruction methods. Results obtained from the implementation of our methods to real images are supposed to be an initial step useful for designing new methodologies that will help surgeons operating MIS techniques.