Guest talk of Maximilian Fehrentz

On Monday, December 15, 2pm, we had a guest talk from Maximilian Fehrentz, TU Munich.

Title: "Spatial Intelligence in Surgery: Radiance Field Registration,
CT-Coupled Deformable 4D Splatting, and 4D Language-Based Scene Reasoning "

Abstract:
Recent developments in computer-assisted surgery combine geometric reconstruction with semantic understanding to form a foundation for spatially intelligent systems. Radiance field–based registration enables cross-modal registration of 3D preoperative imaging with intraoperative 2D video. 4D Gaussian Splatting coupled to preoperative imaging extends this rigid registration to deformable settings by coupling preoperative anatomical priors with surgical video to recover tissue deformations and propagate it to the preoperative imaging. Building on these representations, language-aligned 4D Feature Gaussians introduce a means of integrating procedural knowledge of foundation models and enable spatiotemporal reasoning over organ relations, instrument interactions, and surgical events. Together, these methods illustrate an approach to bridging preoperative imaging, intraoperative reconstruction, and semantic understanding.