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M O N T H 2 0 1 4 | S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
S U R G I C A L I M A G I N G
C
an you envision video display monitors that deliver three-dimensional
images without the need for glasses to appreciate the effect? Observers
say that science is readying the technology for surgical prime time.
For an article appearing in the January 2013 issue of the journal Neurosurgery
(
tinyurl.com/o8ld9zv
), a team of researchers from the School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis
reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of autostereoscopic imaging based on
video displayed from a microscope's camera.
Not only do users not have to wear polarized sunglass-style lenses, they write, but
multiple users can see the effect simultaneously. Plus, its depth-rendering format
can boost the efficiency and accuracy of image-guided surgery's graphic registra-
tion and overlay tasks.
While current applications of autostereoscopic imaging are bound to less-than-
HD-quality imaging, and the depth perception displayed sometimes appears shal-
lower than it really is, the researchers foresee these shortcomings being resolved in
time.
—David Bernard
LOOKING AHEAD
3D Without Glasses?
VISUAL
AIDS
New
eyewear is com-
fortable, but surgeons would appreciate
operating without it.
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