Endoscope guidance from interactive planar slices of a volume image

An endoscopic imaging system, comprising:

• an endoscope for generating an endoscopic video of an anatomical structure within an anatomical region;
• and
• an endoscope guidance controller operably connected to the endoscope, the endoscopic guidance controller structurally configured to:
• based on a registration between the endoscopic video and a volume image of the anatomical region, control a graphical user interface to facilitate a user interaction with a slice selector configured to select and display at least one interactive planar slice of the volume image, the selected at least one interactive planar slice corresponding to a selected planar view of the anatomical structure, the user interaction comprising a user selection of a point of interest within the at least one interactive planar slice, and
• based on the selected planar view and the selected point of interest, guide the endoscope to a location within the anatomical region and position the endoscope to adjust a field of view of the endoscope to align with the selected planar view of the anatomical structure for imaging the selected point of interest within the endoscopic video.