Gaze-contingent perceptually enabled interactions in the operating theatre

PURPOSE: Improved surgical outcome and patient safety in the operating theatre are constant challenges. We hypothesise that a framework that collects and utilises information —especially perceptually enabled ones—from multiple sources, could help to meet the above goals. This paper presents some core functionalities of a wider low-cost framework under development that allows perceptually enabled interaction within the surgical environment. METHODS: The synergy of wearable eye-tracking and advanced computer vision methodologies, such as SLAM, is exploited. As a demonstration of one of the framework’s possible functionalities, an articulated collaborative robotic arm and laser pointer is integrated and the set-up is used to project the surgeon’s fixation point in 3D space. RESULTS: The implementation is evaluated over 60 fixations on predefined targets, with distances between the subject and the targets of 92–212 cm and between the robot and the targets of 42–193 cm. The median overall system error is currently 3.98 cm. Its real-time potential is also highlighted. CONCLUSIONS: The work presented here represents an introduction and preliminary experimental validation of core functionalities of a larger framework under development. The proposed framework is geared towards a safer and more efficient surgical theatre. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11548-017-1580-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.