The Cognitive Eye: AI-Driven Perception and Visualization in Surgery provides a contemporary and clinically oriented overview of how artificial intelligence, computer vision, and advanced visualization technologies are transforming modern surgery.

The book explores the transition from conventional computer-assisted visualization toward systems capable of interpreting complex visual and multimodal information and transforming it into clinically meaningful guidance. It addresses technologies used in preoperative planning, intraoperative imaging, surgical navigation, image fusion, augmented and virtual reality, computer vision, real-time decision support, and robotic surgery.

Written by an international multidisciplinary team of surgeons, engineers, computer scientists, and experts in medical technology, the book connects technological principles with their practical application in the operating room. Particular emphasis is placed on how AI-supported perception can enhance the surgeon's ability to recognize anatomical structures, interpret operative situations, integrate multiple sources of information, and interact with increasingly intelligent surgical systems.

Beyond current clinical applications, the book examines the development of the cognitive operating room, surgical data science, human-machine collaboration, and the emerging transition from assistive visualization toward context-aware and increasingly autonomous surgical technologies.

Combining clinical experience, technological foundations, and perspectives on future development, this book is intended for surgeons, surgical trainees, engineers, researchers, and professionals involved in digital surgery, medical robotics, artificial intelligence, and computer-assisted interventions.

Konrad W. Karcz, MD, PhD, Professor of Surgery, is a surgeon and academic with extensive experience in general, visceral, oncological, minimally invasive and robotic, plastic and reconstructive surgery. He currently works at the Clinic for Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery with the Burn Center at Klinikum Nürnberg and is academically associated with Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.He studied medicine at the Silesian Medical University in Katowice, Poland, and obtained his habilitation at Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg. He subsequently held a W2 Professorship in Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery at the University of Lübeck and later continued his academic work at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München as Head of Minimally Invasive, Robot Assisted Surgery and Surgical Innovations.His scientific interests focus particularly on minimally invasive and robotic surgery, surgical visualization, digital surgery, artificial intelligence, surgical data integration, and the development of novel technologies for the operating room. He has coordinated and participated in numerous interdisciplinary and international projects connecting surgery, engineering, medical technology, and computer science. In 2026, he serves as President of the International Society for Medical Innovation and Technology (iSMIT).Prof. Karcz has received three honorary doctorates from universities in Georgia and the title of Professor of Medical Sciences in Poland. His academic and scientific work has also been recognized through several national and international awards.

Professor Gumbs is the Director of Artificial Intelligence Surgery at the Hôpital Antoine Béclère, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Artificial Intelligence Surgery (aisjournal.net) and is the Chief Medical Officer of ACCREA Medical Robotics, which specializes in collaborative interventional robotics. He is also the President and founder of the Artificial Intelligence Organization for the Next generation of Surgeons (AIONS.ai). Professor of Surgery at Grigol Robakidze University and the University of Magdeburg, he was previously Director of the Minimally Invasive Hepatic-Pancreatic-Biliary Surgery Program at SMG-MD Anderson Cancer Center and prior to that the Director of Minimally Invasive Hepatobiliary Surgery and at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has been Instructor of Clinical Surgery at Cornell-Weill Medical College, Instructor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgical Oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center. He is certified in general surgery, hepatic-pancreatic and biliary surgery, robotic, minimally invasive surgery and interventional flexible endoscopy. He has delivered local, regional, national, and international invited presentations primarily devoted to minimally invasive surgical techniques for the liver, pancreas, and digestive organs and artificial intelligence surgery. His articles have been published in Annals of Surgery, Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. He has volunteered for Doctors Without Borders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti and has also done several humanitarian missions in Ecuador.