Computer Vision News - April 2018

The Robotics and Control Lab ( RCL ) dedicates most of its work to medical imaging and machine learning for biomedical applications. It is managed by Tim Salcudean , Robert Rohling and Purang Abolmaesumi , counting about 30-40 students and staff. It owns 15 ultrasound machines and three da Vinci surgical systems, of which two are on site and the third is in the hospital to carry ongoing experimentation on animals. The projects RCL works on - declares Abolmaesumi - focus on translational research, starting with questions asked by physicians: spine imaging, prostate interventions, radiation therapy and image-based diagnostic solutions, where images come from ultrasound, MR and microscopy. Much of its activities are focused on urology, cardiology, anesthesia and orthopedics. Partnerships with hospitals allowed the lab to migrate to big data analytics; for example, large datasets of heart images are analyzed with machine learning techniques. RCL has two major ongoing initiatives with the Vancouver General Hospital : one on urology (about prostate cancer) and one in cardiology (focusing on heart imaging). Projects are both top down and bottom up: some are initiated by doctors who ask for the lab’s help to solve a specific problem; others by the lab, who develops a promising application and looks out for partners site to deploy it; other projects are originated in the corporate world. Some are multi- institutional projects, involving other organizations. RCL has worked on guidance of epidural ultrasound - explains Rohling - for almost 10 years. The problem in this spine project is placing the needle in the epidural space of the spine, where until now this was done by palpation and by stopping the insertion when the needle stops encountering resistance. The procedure requires precision in the order of 1 mm . Artificial intelligence is used to interpret ultrasound in such a way that enables to understand the anatomy and provide guidance. Patient-specific information is provided in real time. Another cool piece of technology is a handheld ultrasound transducer, a pocket-sized wireless device developed by a Vancouver company: it comes with all the user interfaces enabling connection with Android or IOS smartphones and its small size does not prevent it from providing good quality images. This system enables to take ultrasound images virtually anywhere and save/share them efficiently, for example on the cloud. 18 The Lab of the Month The Robotics and Control Laboratory (RCL) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada carries out research in medical image analysis, image guided diagnosis and interventions, telerobotic and robotic control of mobile machines and manipulators. Many thanks to Delaram Behnami for organizing this visit to the lab. Computer Vision News Lab Faculty members (l. to r.): Tim Salcudean, Robert Rohling and Purang Abolmaesumi