Patent ID: 8388539

Claim:
A surgical operation supporting apparatus comprising: first acquisition means for optically measuring a surface of an operation site during surgery and acquiring first position information representing a three-dimensional position of each of points on the surface of the operation site; second acquisition means for: measuring an unexposed portion of the operation site with ultrasonic waves during surgery, the unexposed portion of the operation site being below the surface of the operation site; and acquiring second position information representing a three-dimensional position of each of points in the unexposed portion of the operation site; correction means for, based on the first position information acquired by said first acquisition means and the second position information acquired by said second acquisition means, correcting a position of a portion whose three-dimensional position is known by the first position information and the second position information in a generated three-dimensional model of the operation site, the generated three-dimensional model comprising a plurality of node points each corresponding a different point having a particular position in the unexposed portion, and thereafter, estimating displacement and distortion at a portion whose three-dimensional position is not known in the generated three-dimensional model based on a plurality of high-definition tomographic images of the operation site to obtain an estimated result, such images are taken before surgery and comprise a plurality of pixels having an initial position, re-correcting the three-dimensional model of the operation site by use of a finite element method and the estimated result, and correcting the plurality of high-definition tomographic images by automatically moving at least some of the plurality of pixels from the initial position to a different position in accordance with movement of each particular position of one or more of the plurality node points in the re-corrected three-dimensional model of the operation site; and display control means for allowing the high-definition tomographic images corrected by said correction means to be shown on a display.