Ball Tip Stylus Bone Surface Palpation for Surgical Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical procedures for computer-assisted navigation during bone surgery require manual and time-consuming registration processes for accurately tracking bone landmarks, which can be cumbersome and prone to errors.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a ball tip stylus for palpating bone surfaces to acquire fiducial locations, determining the center of the ball, defining an offset-acquired surface, and translating it to match the actual bone surface, enabling more automated and accurate registration of bone anatomy for navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual registration processes are used for tracking bone landmarks, then the process is simple to implement, but the registration precision and efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical registration operations with an automated optical tracking system. The ball tip stylus equipped with fiducials is tracked by optical cameras, automatically capturing bone surface points and generating 3D models without manual intervention, thereby improving registration precision while maintaining implementation simplicity through automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service registration where the bone surface itself provides the registration information. By palpating the bone surface with the ball tip stylus and automatically tracking the fiducials, the system extracts anatomical landmarks directly from the patient's anatomy without requiring external reference objects or complex manual alignment procedures.
2Productivity
If manual registration processes are used for tracking bone landmarks, then the equipment required is simple, but the time consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces time-consuming manual registration with real-time optical tracking. The fiducials on the ball tip stylus are continuously tracked by cameras as the surgeon palpates the bone surface, automatically generating 3D models and extracting landmarks in real-time, significantly reducing registration time while improving productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous tracking of the ball tip stylus throughout the palpation process. The optical cameras continuously capture fiducial positions, and the system continuously updates the 3D bone surface model, ensuring that registration information is accumulated continuously without interruption, thereby reducing total registration time.
3Reliability
If reference elements are rigidly attached to bones with fixation structures, then the tracking reliability is improved, but the ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical fixation system (reference elements attached with screws or clips) with a contactless optical tracking system. The ball tip stylus with fiducials is tracked by cameras without physical attachment to the bone, eliminating the need for fixation structures while maintaining tracking reliability through continuous optical monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary optical tracking field between the surgeon and the bone. Instead of directly attaching physical reference elements to the bone, the system uses optical cameras to track fiducials on the ball tip stylus, which serves as a mediator that can be freely moved and positioned without requiring surgical fixation.
4Measurement precision
If preoperative CT scans are used for patient registration, then the measurement precision is improved, but the loss of time and increased device complexity occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing bone surface geometry and extracting anatomical landmarks directly during the surgical procedure itself. The ball tip stylus palpates the bone surface and the optical system generates 3D models intraoperatively, eliminating the need for preoperative CT scans while maintaining measurement precision through direct anatomical sampling.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential registration information directly from the patient's anatomy during surgery. Instead of using comprehensive preoperative CT scans that capture entire body regions, the system extracts specific bone surface points and anatomical landmarks needed for registration, reducing time and complexity while maintaining precision for the surgical task at hand.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for computer assisted navigation during surgery. At least one processor operates to identify locations of fiducials of a reference element on a ball tip stylus in images obtained from tracking cameras with at least partially overlapping field-of-views imaging the ball tip stylus with a ball palpating a surface of a bone. Operations determine locations of a center of the ball based on the locations of the fiducials of the reference element, and define an offset-acquired surface of the bone based on mathematically connecting the locations of the center of the ball. Operations determine local normal vectors to the offset-acquired surface for the locations of the center of the ball. Operations translate the offset-acquired surface of the bone toward the surface of the bone along the local normal vectors based on a radius of the ball to define an acquired surface of the bone.