TASK-ORIENTED ASYMMETRIC MULTIPROCESSING FOR INTERACTIVE IMAGE-GUIDEDSURGERY

Interactive, Image-Guided Surgery (IIGS) is a technique for using thre e-dimensional medical images (tomograms) as maps for surgical guidance . The process requires real-time tracking of surgical position and map ping of that position onto the image volume or volumes. Because of the mission-critical nature of the process and the large volumes of data which must be manipulated, system performance is essential. We have ev olved a technique for providing very rapid tracking and display on mod est computer systems by distributing parts of the overall task to sepa rate processors in the system. By using processors of architecture bes t suited for each task we enhance the total process efficiency as defi ned by system performance per cost. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Sci ence B.V. All rights reserved.