Configurable software framework for 2D/3D video see-through displays in medical applications

Augmented Reality (AR) has already proven its worth in various applications in the medical domain. However, most of the solutions proposed were bound to specific hardware or software configurations, and/or their application was limited to specific cases, thus lacking in flexibility. In this paper, we present a software framework suitable for AR video see-through systems conceived for medical applications: our solution allows merging of real world images grabbed by one or more external cameras with computer-generated sceneries coregistered to the acquired images. The software framework is highly configurable and extensible thanks to the employment of two text configuration files that make it suitable for many typologies of potential applications. The proposed solution can be easily adapted to functioning with different tracking and AR visualization modalities. The versatility of the software for video see-through AR applications was already tested on various medical applications, in conjunction with head-mounted displays or with external spatial displays.