Use of the Microsoft Kinect for applications of patient surface data to radiotherapy
Dominique Guillet · 2014
The object of this thesis is to present the development of a novel technique to acquire 3D surface data of patients undergoing external beam radiotherapy treatments. Commercially available techniques to acquire patient surface data are often very expensive and lack flexibility. Here, the use of the Microsoft Kinect to reliably acquire 3D scans of patient surface is investigated. First, the device itself is introduced, as well as the system used to create 3D models. Next, a study designed to test the applicability of the technique is presented. The reproducibility of the meshes created by the system is investigated, as well as their capability to accurately represent the surface scanned. A design is then presented to make the system easily applicable to the clinic by using concurrently two fixed Kinects to acquire a 3D model in a quick and stable way instead of a single hand-held device. This approach reduces potential user variabilities in scan quality, removes the risk of accident and negates the need of personnel training. Potential applications of the device to external beam radiotherapy are also demonstrated. Its use to detect local patient positioning errors is presented, where small local variations difficult to see with the naked eye become clearly visible. The system is also used to predict collisions using gantry and patient scans and thus ensure the safety of unconventional treatment trajectories.