A theoretical comparison of 2-camera and 3-camera optical localizers with active or passive instrumentation.
Since the technology was first pioneered in the medical arena in the early 1990s, optical localizers have increasingly been used in computer assisted surgical procedures. This surgical practice is commonly referred to as "Image Guided Surgery (IGS)". Historically, mechanical stereotactical frames have been used for 3-D position measurement in surgery. Now, new computer input devices can generate high speed numeric position data for direct input into a host computer. This enables application software to acquire the real-time position of surgical instruments and display the positions relative to previously acquired Computer Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance (MR) images on the same computer screen. In addition to optical, there are currently three other types of technologies utilized in the design of these localizers--mechanical, magnetic and sonic. Of these four technologies, optical has emerged as the leader due to its superior accuracy, ease of use, and unobtrusive design. This document focuses on optical localizer technology, specifically comparing 2-camera, or 2-sensor, systems with 3-camera, or 3-sensor, systems. Figures 1 and 2 show applications of such IGS workstations in cranial surgery.
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Image Guided Technologies, Inc., Boulder, CO, USA.
D004867:Equipment Design; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D013238:Stereotaxic Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed