I See Through... You: Augmented reality surgical navigation: alignment and 3D perception

In recent years, extended reality (XR)’s fast advancements, in terms of hardware and software components, enabled it to become a mainstream consumer-level technology. The interest from the medical community became evident due to the potential that XR has shown in other fields (e.g., industrial). In particular, surgical navigation based on augmented reality (AR) evolved into a main research and development topic, where developed systems would ultimately assist during interventions in the operating room (OR). In this thesis, we developed and assessed AR approaches for surgical navigation focusing on image-to-patient alignment and depth perception challenges as a first step towards clinical implementation. This thesis investigates through phantom studies adequate AR navigation systems for surgical applications such as craniosynostosis surgery and external ventricular drain placement.