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A Gesture-based Tool for Sterile Browsing of Radiology Images

^a Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel
^b Institute for Medical Informatics, Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC.

^_* Correspondence: Juan P. Wachs, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er-Sheva, Israel, 84105 (Email: juan{at}bgu.ac.il).

Received for publication: 02/07/07; accepted for publication: 01/22/08.

The use of doctor-computer interaction devices in the operation room (OR) requires new modalities that support medical imaging manipulation while allowing doctors' hands to remain sterile, supporting their focus of attention, and providing fast response times. This paper presents "Gestix," a vision-based hand gesture capture and recognition system that interprets in real-time the user's gestures for navigation and manipulation of images in an electronic medical record (EMR) database. Navigation and other gestures are translated to commands based on their temporal trajectories, through video capture. "Gestix" was tested during a brain biopsy procedure. In the in vivo experiment, this interface prevented the surgeon's focus shift and change of location while achieving a rapid intuitive reaction and easy interaction. Data from two usability tests provide insights and implications regarding human-computer interaction based on nonverbal conversational modalities.