Basler pilot GigE Cameras Make Medical Surgery System See

Under contract from Vanderbilt University, Pathfinder Therapeutics Inc. pursued the development of a custom laser range scanner. Pathfinder designs and manufactures an image guided surgery system for use in various abdominal surgical procedures. Image guided surgery is a GPS-like system whose goal is to accurately map the position of the surgical instrument onto the pre-operative CT or MR data.

Feature-rich 3D models of the organs, blood vessels, and tumors can be created from the pre-operative data, and these models provide the surgeon with the ability to see through the organ before and while he resects, ablates, or performs some other procedure. The magic step is performing the positioning that allows the instrument to be accurately registered onto the pre-operative data and 3D models.

Two Basler pilot GigE cameras with different resolutions and frame rates were chosen. Both cameras work within one single platform, which considerably minimizes development efforts.