DEVICE AND METHOD FOR ASSISTING LAPAROSCOPIC SURGERY - RULE BASED APPROACH

1 . A method of assisting an operator to perform a surgical procedure, comprising:

inserting at least one surgical tool into a surgical environment of a human body;

real-time estimating a 3D spatial position of said at least one surgical tool within the surgical environment;

detecting if there is movement of said at least one surgical tool within the surgical environment by determining whether the 3D spatial position of said at least one surgical tool at time t f is different than the 3D spatial position of said at least one surgical tool at time t o ;

controlling the spatial position of said at least one surgical tool using a controller, wherein said controlling step includes determining whether each of said detected movements is an ALLOWED movement or a RESTRICTED movement based on a no fly zone rule stored in a database in communication with the controller, wherein said determining step comprises

receiving at least one real-time image of said surgical environment and displaying said at least one real-time image on a display,

receiving input from a user observing said real-time image on the display, said input defining a no-fly zone comprising a plurality of 3D spatial positions in said surgical environment;

determining that said movement is a RESTRICTED movement if the movement is one in which said at least one surgical tool is located substantially in at least one of said 3D spatial positions, and

determining that said movement is an ALLOWED movement if the movement is one in which the location of said at least one surgical tool is substantially different from said 3D spatial positions.

2 - 5 . (canceled)