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Effect of reduced stereoscopic camera separation on ring placement with a surgical telerobot

Surgical Endoscopy volume 22, pages 2396–2400 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

A custom, stereoscopic video camera was built to study the impact of decreased camera separation on a stereoscopically viewed, visual–manual task resembling some aspects of surgery.

Materials and methods

Twelve naïve subjects and one of the experimenters were first trained in a ring placement task using the stereo-laparoscope and subsequently switched to the stereo-camera, which was used with differing camera separations ranging from 100% of the laparoscope’s separation to a biocular view corresponding to no separation (2D).

Results

The results suggest firstly, that stereopsis (i.e., use of 3D laparoscopes) improves surgical performance over conventional 2D laparoscopes, and secondly that camera separation may be reduced 20–35% without appreciably degrading user performance. Even a 50% reduction in separation resulted in stereoscopically supported performance far superior compared to the 2D condition.

Conclusions

The results suggest that existing 3D laparoscopes which use 5-mm camera separation may well be significantly miniaturized without causing substantial performance degradation.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partially funded by internal NASA support from Code UL at NASA headquarters and Code THH at NASA Ames and by in-kind personnel and development support from Intuitive Surgical, Inc. This paper is based on, and extends, our preliminary report in a 2005 SPIE proceedings [8].

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, UK

    Jonathan M. Fishman

  2. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA

    Jonathan M. Fishman & Stephen R. Ellis

  3. Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, CA, USA

    Christopher J. Hasser & John D. Stern

Authors
  1. Jonathan M. Fishman
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  2. Stephen R. Ellis
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  3. Christopher J. Hasser
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  4. John D. Stern
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan M. Fishman.

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Fishman, J.M., Ellis, S.R., Hasser, C.J. et al. Effect of reduced stereoscopic camera separation on ring placement with a surgical telerobot. Surg Endosc 22, 2396–2400 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-008-0032-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00464-008-0032-8

Keywords

  • Stereoscopic display
  • Laparoscopic surgery
  • Intercamera distance
  • Human factors