title: Development and Validation of a Near-Infrared Optical System for Tracking Surgical Instruments.
abstract: Surgical navigation systems can help doctors maximize the accuracy of surgeries, minimize operation durations, avoid mistakes, and improve the survival chances of patients. The tracking of device is an important component in surgical navigation systems. However, commercial surgical tracking devices are expensive, thus hindering the development of surgical navigation systems, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, an accurate and low-cost near-infrared optical tracking system is presented in this study for the real-time tracking of surgical tools and for measuring and displaying the positions of these tools relative to lesions and other targets inside a patient's body. A relative algorithm for the registration of surgical tools is also proposed in this paper to yield easy, safe, and precise tracking. Experiments are conducted to test the performance of the system. Results show that the mean square errors of the distances between the light-emitting points on the surgical tools are less than 0.3 mm, with the mean square error of distance between the tip and light-emitting points is less than 0.025 mm and that between two adjacent corner points is 0.2714 mm.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Qinyong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: School of Information Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, 510225, China. kencaizhku@foxmail.com.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Rongqian
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Science, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, China.
authors.forename: Huazhou
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D007259:Infrared Rays; D055096:Optical Devices; D012985:Software Design; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013525:Surgical Instruments; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Near-infrared; Optical tracking system; Registration of the surgical tools; Surgical navigation