Proximity Map Projection: Interactive Visualisation for Image-Guided Surgery [article]

David F Marshall, University, The Australian National, University, The Australian National
2018
This thesis describes a new interface technique for neurosurgeons and interventional radiologists performing image-guided therapies such as the ablation of brain tumours. This new technique is called Proximity Map Projection (PMP). Based on an analysis of related work, including the documented recent progress in enabling technologies, a case is made that present-day interactive visualisations supporting image-guided treatment of tumours will need to be dramatically improved to take advantage of
more » ... the increased image refresh rates available as soon as 2020. This probable requirement for improved visualisation technology in the very near future motivated the invention and investigation of the PMP technique described in this thesis. The PMP technique is an interactive 2-D visual projection of the proximity of two 3-D surfaces – in particular, the surface representing the boundary of a thermal treatment region, and the surface of a tumour that is the target of this treatment. By clicking on interesting points in the PMP, surgeons are able to quickly select the 2-D MRI slices corresponding to those interesting points. The PMP provides a quick way of selecting a desired image from a large stack of 2-D MRI data, thus freeing up surgeons to spend a greater proportion of their time applying their expertise to decision making, rather than to navigating through image data. In this thesis, the PMP technique is presented and then refined as user studies are undertaken. In a series of investigations exploring its effectiveness, it is shown that the PMP technique enables non-expert users to quickly and accurately navigate to, and observe, desired individual medical images within large stacks of such images. A further experiment finds no significant differences in the way that medically experienced and inexperienced users use PMP to complete tasks. That study also verifies that users pay visual attention to PMP, regardless of whether or not they have interacted with it via the mouse. Observation of the visual attention of users du [...]
doi:10.25911/5d5143ea79bc9 fatcat:ebagznej75hejfhwnnazshs6xq