(Intra-Operative) Mixed Reality Visualization of Segmented Vessels

19.03.2025, Abschlussarbeiten, Bachelor- und Masterarbeiten

This research investigates the visualization of small blood vessels for intraoperative guidance using mixed reality (MR) headsets. The goal is to provide real-time, in-situ anatomical guidance to help medical personnel quickly locate and interact with critical structures during surgery.

The Human-Centered Computing and Extended Reality Lab of the Professorship for Machine Intelligence in Orthopedics seeks applicants for Bachelor/Master Thesis for the Summer Semester 2025.

Overview

Project Description

Surgeons often rely on preoperative CT scans for guidance, but this information is typically reviewed separately rather than displayed in-situ. This project explores the use of mixed reality for real-time visualization of medical volumetric data to enhance surgical precision. Specifically, we aim to segment and highlight small vessels in the upper leg to assist in their removal during plastic surgery. This work is conducted in collaboration with LMU medical practitioners.

Key research areas include:

• Investigating visualization strategies for small vessel representation
• Exploring preprocessing techniques and intermediate representations (e.g., meshification, Gaussian splatting)
• Developing visual aids to enhance the identification of fine anatomical structures
• Evaluating XR headset and hardware options, including optical see-through and video pass-through technologies

Recommended background (or motivation in learning):

• Experience with the Unity game engine and C# programming
• Experience with mixed reality visualization
• Interest in exploratory research to identify effective visualization techniques
• Interest in state-of-the-art medical visualization methods and reading research on this topic

Please send your transcript of records, CV and motivation to: Constantin Kleinbeck (constantin.kleinbeck@tum.de) with CC to hex-thesis.ortho@mh.tum.de

Literatur

[1] A. Halbig, S. K. Babu, S. Gatter, M. E. Latoschik, K. Brukamp, and S. von Mammen, “Opportunities and Challenges of Virtual Reality in Healthcare – A Domain Experts Inquiry,” Front. Virtual Real., vol. 3, p. 837616, Mar. 2022, doi: 10.3389/frvir.2022.837616.
[2] C. Moro, C. Phelps, P. Redmond, and Z. Stromberga, “HoloLens and mobile augmented reality in medical and health science education: A randomised controlled trial,” Br. J. Educ. Technol., vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 680–694, Mar. 2021, doi: 10.1111/bjet.13049.
[3] F. Incekara, M. Smits, C. Dirven, and A. Vincent, “Clinical Feasibility of a Wearable Mixed-Reality Device in Neurosurgery,” World Neurosurgery, vol. 118, pp. e422–e427, Oct. 2018, doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2018.06.208. v[4] O. Kutter et al., “Real-time Volume Rendering for High Quality Visualization in Augmented Reality”.
[5] Ma, Longfei, et al. "Visualization, registration and tracking techniques for augmented reality guided surgery: a review." Physics in Medicine & Biology 68.4 (2023): 04TR02.
[6] Fischer, Marc, et al. "Evaluation of different visualization techniques for perception-based alignment in medical ar." 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct). IEEE, 2020.

Kontakt: hex-thesis.ortho@mh.tum.de, constantin.kleinbeck@tum.de