Do-It-Yourself Augmented Reality Heads-Up Display (DIY AR-HUD): A Technical Note.

Background: We present a "Do-It-Yourself" method to build an affordable augmented reality heads-up display system (AR-HUD) capable of displaying intraoperative images. All components are commercially available products, which the surgeons may use in their own practice for educational and research purposes.
Methods: Moverio BT 35-E smart glasses were connected to operating room imaging modalities (ie, fluoroscopy and 3D navigation platforms) via a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) converter, allowing for continuous high-definition video transmission. The addition of an HDMI transmitter-receiver makes the AR-HUD system wireless.
Results: We used our AR-HUD system in 3 patients undergoing instrumented spinal fusion. AR-HUD projected fluoroscopy images onto the surgical field, eliminating shift of surgeon focus and procedure interruption, with only a 40- to 100-ms delay in transmission, which was not clinically impactful.
Conclusions: An affordable AR-HUD capable of displaying real-time information into the surgeon's view can be easily designed, built, and tested in surgical practice. As wearable heads-up display technology continues to evolve rapidly, individual components presented here may be substituted to improve its functionality and usability. Surgeons are in a unique position to conduct clinical testing in the operating room environment to optimize the augmented reality system for surgical use.
(This manuscript is generously published free of charge by ISASS, the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery. Copyright © 2021 ISASS.)