Benjamin Busam, a researcher working for Framos, has won the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) Young Professional Award 2015. Busam was presented with the prize at the association’s annual business conference, held in Athens, Greece from 11 to 13 June.
Busam won the award for his work on adaptable high-resolution real-time stereo tracking. The technology has been trialled in a medical application designed to add 3D imaging capabilities to ultrasound.
The work presents an adaptable high-resolution tracking system based on stereo computer vision that can be used for real-time tracking applications. In the medical application, the system was set up as effectively a third hand for a surgeon carrying out breast lymph node screening biopsies.
In a lymph node biopsy, the surgeon first scans the patient’s breast with a gamma camera and an ultrasound transducer to determine where to insert the biopsy needle. In taking the biopsy, however, only the ultrasound transducer is normally used to guide the needle.
The system devised by Busam tracks the surgeons hand so that a robot-mounted gamma camera can follow the procedure and give additional gamma ray imaging information to the doctor performing the biospy.
The stereo camera tracks passive infrared markers to give accurate six-degrees-of-freedom positioning. Busam developed the algorithm to provide robust recognition and real-time, precise tracking. The system is not only suitable for medical applications, but also generally applicable for many industrial tasks involving highly accurate robot guidance, tool navigation and 3D measurements.
Busam works for Framos as a development engineer in the imaging systems. He is also an external PhD student in informatics with a focus on computer vision at the Chair for Computer Aided Medical Procedures at the Technical University of Munich.
The EMVA Young Professional award is an annual award to honour the outstanding and innovative work of a student or a young professional in the field of machine vision or image processing. With the award, EMVA intends to encourage students to focus on challenges in the field of machine vision and to apply latest research results and findings in computer vision to the practical needs of the industry.
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