Automatic localization of laparoscopic instruments for the visual servoing of an endoscopic camera holder.

The use of a robotized camera holder in laparoscopic surgery allows a surgeon to control the endoscope without the intervention of an assistant. Today, the orders that the surgeon can give to robotized camera holders remain limited. In order to provide higher level interactions between the surgeon and a robotized camera holder, we have developed a new method for the automatic tracking of laparoscopic instruments which works in near real-time. The method is based on the measurement of the 3D positions of the insertion points of the instruments in the abdominal cavity and a simple shape model of the laparoscopic instruments. We present the results of our first experimentation on a cadaver.