Generative Realism for Simulators

A texture-enhancement system that turns a surgical simulator's rendered frame into a far more lifelike image of the same scene.

The problem

A surgical simulator has to behave correctly first: tissue must deform and respond to instruments in real time. That leaves a limited budget for how it looks, and the closer the picture is to a real endoscope feed, the more convincing the training.

What I built

A texture-enhancement system that boosts the visual fidelity and realism of surgical simulators. It takes a rendered frame and produces a more lifelike version of the same scene: fine vessels, moisture and the surface detail of real tissue appear, while the structures stay where the simulation put them.

Drag the slider above to compare a simulator frame with its enhanced counterpart.

Controlling the look

Generated appearance can be steered. The α strip among the figures at the end of this page shows one scene rendered at seven values of a single parameter, moving smoothly from one look to another.