Line Filtering for Surgical Tool Localization in 3D Ultrasound Images

Abstract

We present a method for automatic surgical tool localization in 3D ultrasound images based on line ltering, voxel classi cation and model tting. A possible application is to provide assistance for biopsy needle or micro-electrode insertion, or a robotic system performing this insertion. The line ltering method is rst used to enhance the contrast of the 3D ultrasound image, then a classi er is chosen to separate the tool voxels, in order to reduce the number of outliers. The last step is a RANSAC model tting. Experimental results on several di erent datasets demonstrate that the failure rate of the proposed method is lower than for preceding methods, with similar localization accuracy, at the expense of a modest increase in computational e ort. Even though some of the line ltering methods are a little slower than other methods, its robustness and accuracy are strongly proposed and it is worth to develop a system for clinique applications.