Purpose: In this paper, we present a novel approach to the automatic evaluation of open surgery skills using depth cameras. This work is intended to show that depth cameras achieve similar results to RGB cameras, which is the common method in the automatic evaluation of open surgery skills. Moreover, depth cameras offer advantages such as robustness to lighting variations, camera positioning, simplified data compression, and enhanced privacy, making them a promising alternative to RGB cameras. Methods: Experts and novice surgeons completed two simulators of open suturing. We focused on hand and tool detection, and action segmentation in suturing procedures. YOLOv8 was used for tool detection in RGB and depth videos. Furthermore, UVAST and MSTCN++ were used for action segmentation. Our study includes the collection and annotation of a dataset recorded with Azure Kinect. Results: We demonstrated that using depth cameras in object detection and action segmentation achieves comparable results to RGB cameras. Furthermore, we analyzed 3D hand path length, revealing significant differences between experts and novice surgeons, emphasizing the potential of depth cameras in capturing surgical skills. We also investigated the influence of camera angles on measurement accuracy, highlighting the advantages of 3D cameras in providing a more accurate representation of hand movements. Conclusion: Our research contributes to advancing the field of surgical skill assessment by leveraging depth cameras for more reliable and privacy evaluations. The findings suggest that depth cameras can be valuable in assessing surgical skills and provide a foundation for future research in this area.

翻译：目的：本文提出一种利用深度摄像头自动评估开放式手术技能的新方法。本研究旨在证明深度摄像头能与当前开放式手术技能自动评估中普遍采用的RGB摄像头取得相近效果，同时深度摄像头具有对光照变化不敏感、摄像头定位灵活、数据压缩简化以及隐私保护增强等优势，使其成为RGB摄像头的理想替代方案。方法：专家医生与新手医生完成两项开放式缝合模拟任务。我们重点关注手术过程中的手部与工具检测及动作分割任务。采用YOLOv8对RGB与深度视频进行工具检测，并应用UVAST与MSTCN++进行动作分割。研究包含使用Azure Kinect采集的数据集的收集与标注。结果：实验证明，在目标检测与动作分割任务中，采用深度摄像头可获得与RGB摄像头相当的效果。此外，通过分析三维手部路径长度，揭示出专家与新手医生之间存在显著差异，凸显深度摄像头在捕捉手术技能方面的潜力。我们还探讨了摄像头角度对测量精度的影响，证实三维摄像头在更准确呈现手部运动轨迹方面的优势。结论：本研究通过引入深度摄像头推动手术技能评估领域发展，实现更可靠且更具隐私保护的评估。研究结果表明深度摄像头在手术技能评估中具有重要价值，为该领域后续研究奠定基础。