Computational tasks in bronchoscope navigation during computer-assisted transbronchial biopsy

The paper presents algorithmic solutions dedicated to computer navigation system which is to assist bronchoscope positioning during transbronchial needle-aspiration biopsy. The navigation exploits principle of on-line registration of real images coming from endoscope camera and virtual ones generated on the base of computed-tomography (CT) data of a patient. When these images are similar an assumption is made that the bronchoscope and virtual camera have approximately the same position and view direction. In the paper the following computational aspects are described: correction of camera lens distortion, fast approximate estimation of endoscope ego-motion, reconstruction of bronchial tree from CT data by means of their segmentation and its centerline calculation, virtual views generation, registration of real and virtual images via maximization of their mutual information and, finally, efficient parallel and network implementation of the navigation system which is under development.