Comparison of Kinect and Leap Motion for Intraoperative Image Interaction

Background. Touchless interaction devices have increasingly garnered attention for intraoperative imaging interaction, but there are limited recommendations on which touchless interaction mechanisms should be implemented in the operating room. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency, accuracy, and satisfaction of 2 current touchless interaction mechanisms—hand motion and body motion for intraoperative image interaction. Methods. We used the TedCas plugin for ClearCanvas DICOM viewer to display and manipulate CT images. Ten surgeons performed 5 image interaction tasks—step-through, pan, zoom, circle measure, and line measure—on the 3 input interaction devices—the Microsoft Kinect, the Leap Motion, and a mouse. Results. The Kinect shared similar accuracy with the Leap Motion for most of the tasks. But it had an increased error rate in the step-through task. The Leap Motion led to shorter task completion time than the Kinect and was preferred by the surgeons, especially for the measure tasks. Discussion. Our study suggests that hand tracking devices, such as the Leap Motion, should be used for intraoperative imagining manipulation tasks that require high precision.