A Real-time Ultrasound Rendering with Model-based Tissue Deformation for Needle Insertion

Abstract

In the course of developing a training simulator for puncture, a novel approach is proposed to render in realtime the ultrasound (US) image of any 3D model. It is combined with the deformation of the soft tissues (due to their interactions with a needle and a probe) according to their physical properties. Our solution reproduces the usual US artifacts at a low cost. It combines the use of textures and ray-tracing with a new way to efficiently render fibrous tissues. Deformations are handled in real-time on the GPU using displacement functions. Our approach goes beyond the usual bottleneck of real-time deformations of 3D models in interactive US simulation. The display of tissues deformation and the possibilities to tune the 3D morphotypes, tissue properties, needle shape, or even specific probe characteristics, is clearly an advantage in such a training environment.

A Virtual Reality and Haptic Simulator for Ultrasound-Guided Needle Insertion

“…The collision detection between haptic devices and objects in the 3D scene is treated in a same thread for both needle and probe, as long as the needle does not pierce the first layer of the object. Moreover, the used algorithm considers the direction and velocity of the needle to obtain accurate collision points [32] and correctly treat the puncturing.…”

“…Then, we apply the method proposed by [32] to successively add on this 2D slice all the effects required to provide an ultrasound view. Thus, the reflection and shadow are both added (see (a)) by filling a depth map, computed during the simulation (see (i)), into the texture before any other render pass.…”

“…Fiber orientation of thin tissues. To consider the orientation of thin tissues, some others treatments are performed providing a texture-dependent oriented blur [32]. Firstly, a pre-computed process consists in retrieving the fibers orientation (see ( 2)).…”

“…To take into account the interaction of the two haptic devices, we apply their displacements (see (iv)) directly into the pixels of the computed ultrasound picture (see (e)) [32].…”

Development of haptic simulator for practicing the intraarticular needle injection under echography

“…The needle's haptic feedback is provided by our system. For practicing the needle guidance, the user uses an ultrasound probe mock, and visualize a 2D image rendered in real-time by the software developed in [17]. Fig.…”