Controlling a surgical navigation system

#This application is a national phase of International Application No. PCT/EP2010/050407 filed Jan. 14, 2010 and published in the English language.

#The present invention relates to controlling a surgical navigation system. A surgical navigation system is known in general for example from DE 196 39 615 A1, and surgical navigation systems such as the one used in the present invention (for example, image guided surgery systems) are employed in assisting medical personnel in planning and carrying out medical procedures. For example, such navigation systems can be used in association with instrument tracking systems in order to show, on a display, a positional relationship between instruments and a patient's body or part of a patient's body, images of which have been acquired beforehand, for example as CT or MR image data sets. The navigation system can also be used to provide user guidance through a sequence of steps to be carried out during a medical procedure.

#When using a surgical navigation system in one of the ways mentioned above or in any other way, there is a need for interaction between the user and the navigation system, for example in order to enter control inputs. Such control inputs can be of various kinds, for example in order to activate a certain procedure or to advance one step in a sequence of navigationally assisted steps in a procedure. Further examples will be referred to below.

#The invention will now be described in more detail by referring to particular embodiments and to the attached drawings. It should be noted that each of the features of the present invention referred to herein can be implemented separately or in any expedient combination. In the drawings:

#FIG. 1 shows a general embodiment of the present invention in which a user controls a surgical navigation system;

#FIGS. 2 to 6 show various embodiments of gesture supports comprising a glove;

#A general embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows a user 5 manipulating display items, i.e. images used in medical navigation, which are displayed on a screen 2. The screen can be a monitor or a projection onto a suitable background. It can also be a light box adapted to digitally show and process medical image data.

#In the example shown, the user 5 uses freehand gestures to manipulate images on the display 2, for example in order to rotate an image. Rotating an image is shown merely as an example; the user's gestures can perform a variety of commands such as manipulating displayed images or controlling software functions of a medical navigation system. Such a medical navigation system, as a hardware component, is shown in the manner of a black box in FIG. 1. Reference numeral 1 indicates said medical navigation system 1, i.e. its hardware components which include a computer which processes medical image data, displays said data and receives inputs for this purpose. The two-way line connection (double arrow) between the navigation system 1 and the display 2 is intended to show that data is exchanged in both directions between these two hardware components. Some of the hardware of the navigation system can be provided separately or integrated into the display 2.

#As mentioned above, the hand gestures by the user 5 are used as control inputs for the navigation system and are detected by a detection unit. FIG. 1 shows two possible embodiments of such a detection unit, one of which is a single video camera 3 which detects the gestures (hand movements) made by the user 5. These gestures are then analyzed by a gesture detection system (software) integrated in the navigation system 1, which converts them into commands. Such commands can be display commands, in which case the navigation system 1 influences the display 2 to adapt the images in accordance with the commands, and/or control commands for the medical navigation system or its software, which are used for example to advance a step further during a navigation-assisted medical procedure.