Surgeon's Magic Wand: A Screen Pointing Interactive Method

A novel, non-touch, screen pointing “magic wand” interface is proposed for surgeon’s use in an environment requiring simultaneous display of several patients’ data over a continuous period of time. The magic wand or passive pointing device does not have any active energy source within it (as opposed to a laser pointer) and thus cannot easily be detected or identified. Thus, modeling and simulation task is carried out by generating high resolution color images of a pointer viewing via two digital cameras with a popular three-dimensional (3D) computer graphics and animation program, Studio 3D Max by Discreet is used for detection. These images are then retrieved for analysis into a Microsoft’s Visual C program developed based on the theory of image triangulation. The program outputs the precise coordinates of the surgeon’s wand in the 3D space along with its projection on a large view screen. The computational results of the pointer projection are compared to the known locations specified by the Studio 3D Max for different simulated configurations. High pointing accuracy is achieved: a pointer kept 30 feet away correctly hits the target location within a few inches. This preliminary work will lead to a complex development for interactive hand pointing gesture recognition system and its applicability to a large viewing display environment.