AR Image Data Alignment With Optical Body Markers
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Solution Overview
Problem
AR systems face challenges in precisely aligning virtual objects with real-world environments, particularly in scientific, engineering, and medical applications, where current alignment resolutions are inadequate and often require manual, time-consuming, and inaccurate processes.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing image visible markers with optical codes, affixed to a patient's body, to align an image data set with the patient's anatomy through an augmented reality headset, employing data fitting and shared anatomical structures to enhance alignment precision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual positioning and alignment processes are used, then alignment can be performed, but the process becomes time-consuming and inaccurate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces image visible markers with optical codes as intermediary elements that are affixed to the patient's body. These markers serve as mediators between the physical patient anatomy and the virtual image data set, enabling the AR system to automatically calculate transformation matrices and achieve precise alignment without time-consuming manual processes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical positioning and alignment operations with an automated optical recognition and computational system. The AR headset's optical sensor detects the markers' positions and orientations, and software automatically computes the alignment transformation, substituting manual mechanical adjustment with automated optical-mechanical-computational processes
2Measurement precision
If current alignment methods are used, then alignment can be achieved, but the resolution is only within a few centimeters which is inadequate for scientific, engineering and medical applications
Solution Approach 1:
The image visible markers with optical codes act as intermediary reference elements that provide high-precision measurement features. These markers contain machine-readable optical codes that enable the AR system to detect sub-millimeter positions and orientations, dramatically improving alignment resolution from centimeter-level to sub-millimeter-level precision
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the dimension of optical code recognition to the traditional marker-based alignment system. By incorporating machine-readable optical codes into the markers, the system gains an additional layer of information that enables precise 6-degree-of-freedom pose estimation, transforming a simple visual marker system into a high-precision measurement system
Data Source
AI summary
A technology is described for aligning an image data set with a patient using an augmented reality (AR) headset. A method may include obtaining an image data set representing an anatomical structure of a patient. A two-dimensional (2D) X-ray generated image of at least a portion of the anatomical structure of the patient in the image data set and a visible marker may be obtained. The image data set can be aligned to the X-ray generated image by using data fitting. A location of the visible marker may be defined in the image data set using alignment with the X-ray generated image. The image data set may be aligned with a body of the patient, using the visible marker in the image data set as referenced to the visible marker seen on the patient through the AR headset.