Current Research

Development of a bronchoscope navigation system for real-time navigation-based diagnosis

This research project aims to develop a bronchoscope navigation system for real-time navigation-based diagnosis. A bronchoscope is a very important tool for diagnosing respiratory diseases since it enables us to directly observe the inside of the bronchus. However, since the bronchus has a very complex tree structure and shows very similar branching patterns at branching points, bronchoscopy is very difficult for physicians. A bronchoscope navigation system is strongly expected to be developed for making bronchoscopic examinations safer and effective. The system will give physicians various kinds of information, such as the current location of the bronchoscope, anatomical names of the branches currently being observed, or paths to the desired location where a biopsy should be performed. The most important functions required in the bronchoscope navigation system are estimation of bronchoscope camera positions and orientations in real-time and automatic display of navigation information. We are developing both methods for realizing a bronchoscope navigation system.