Aligning Linked Elongated Device Shapes via Copying
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing shape sensing technologies, such as Fiber-Optic RealShape (FORS), face challenges in accurately visualizing the alignment of two or more elongated devices that are physically linked but independently tracked, leading to misalignments and unstable renderings in visualization, particularly in medical and industrial applications.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize one sensed shape as a reference and the other as a linked shape, determining an overlap region where they should match due to physical overlap, and copying the reference shape to the linked shape in that region to ensure alignment, without requiring a specific hub template, and optionally applying Procrustes-based coordinate transformations for improved accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If two or more elongated devices are tracked independently by FORS, then the 3D shape of each device can be reconstructed, but the visualized reconstructed shapes may not be perfectly aligned in the overlap region due to sensing errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the copying principle by copying the shape data from one device (the outer device) to the other device (the inner device) in the overlap region. This ensures that both devices are visualized with identical shape information in the region where they physically overlap, eliminating misalignment caused by independent sensing errors. The copying is performed after determining the overlap region and establishing proper coordinate system alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses the overlap region as an intermediary to register and align the coordinate systems of multiple devices. By identifying the overlap region where devices physically intersect and using the shape data in this region as a reference, the system can transform coordinate systems to ensure consistent visualization. This intermediary approach allows synchronization of multiple independently tracked devices.
2Ease of operation
If devices are rendered as mesh tubes independently, then each device's shape is visualized, but the mesh tubes will intersect each other at several points instead of aligning
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of rendering each device independently which causes intersections, the patent copies the shape data from one device to another in the overlap region before rendering. This ensures that the mesh tubes are generated from aligned shape data, preventing intersections while maintaining visualization simplicity. The copying operation ensures that the geometric representation accurately reflects the physical alignment of devices.
3Speed
If live video guidance is provided with independently tracked devices, then real-time navigation is enabled, but misalignments temporally vary leading to unstable rendering and user distraction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements real-time copying of shape data in the overlap region during live video guidance. This continuous copying operation ensures that even as devices move and change position, their visualized shapes remain aligned in the overlap region. The process is performed at each frame update, maintaining both real-time responsiveness and rendering stability without causing user distraction.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary determination of the overlap region and coordinate system alignment before rendering each frame. By pre-processing the alignment information and establishing the reference frame in advance, the system can quickly copy shape data and generate stable visualizations in real-time, preventing temporal variations that would cause instability and user distraction.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a method and system of visualizing a first sensed shape of a first elongated device (14) having a first) length and a second sensed shape of a second elongated device (16) having a second length. The first elongated device (14) and the second elongated device (16) are physically linked to one another over at least a part (28) of the first and second lengths. The first sensed shape and the second sensed shape have been obtained independently of each other. The method comprises the steps: providing one of the first and second sensed shapes as a reference shape and the other of the first and second sensed shapes as a linked shape; determining along the reference shape and the linked shape an overlap region in which the reference shape and the linked shape should match due to a physical overlap of the first and second elongated devices (14, 16) in this region; copying, in the overlap region, an overlap region reference shape portion to an overlap region linked shape portion so that, in the overlap region, the linked shape is visualized as matching the reference shape.