Updating Landmark Registration via Depth Map Generation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Image-guided surgical navigation systems face challenges in maintaining accurate landmark registration during medical procedures due to shifts or displacement of reference markers, which can lead to errors in correlating preoperative and intraoperative images.
Innovation Solution
The system captures a planar view image of a region of interest, generates a depth map, identifies the current location of landmark features, and transforms the existing landmark registration to the new location in the common coordinate space, allowing for real-time updates and reducing the need for additional procedural steps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If reference markers are affixed to the patient's anatomy for integration, then the correlation between patient image and physical position is achieved, but the registration accuracy deteriorates due to shifts or displacement of reference markers during the procedure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical reference marker system with an image-based registration system. Instead of relying on physical markers that can shift, the system uses captured images of anatomical landmarks and processed depth maps to identify and track landmark features, eliminating the mechanical attachment and its associated displacement problems
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the anatomical landmarks through image capture and processing. The depth map generates a digital representation of the physical landmarks, allowing the system to track and update registration based on this virtual model rather than physical markers, thereby maintaining accuracy without mechanical attachments
2Measurement precision
If optical tracking of landmark features is used, then the correlation between image and physical position is established, but the measurement precision deteriorates due to difficulty in detecting and measuring landmark locations accurately
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces direct optical tracking with an image capture and processing system. The camera captures images of landmarks, and software processes these images to generate depth maps and identify landmark coordinates, substituting complex optical tracking hardware with simpler imaging and computational methods that improve measurement precision
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces depth map generation as an intermediary process between image capture and landmark identification. The depth map serves as a processed intermediate representation that enhances the visibility and measurability of landmark features, making them easier to detect and measure with higher precision
3Reliability
If complex preoperative setup is performed to establish landmark registration, then the initial registration is achieved, but the device complexity and procedural time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the registration system to update itself automatically during the procedure. The camera captures images, the system processes them to generate depth maps, identifies current landmark locations, and transforms the registration accordingly - all without requiring external intervention or complex preoperative setup, making the system self-sufficient and reducing procedural complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms the static preoperative registration into a dynamic, updateable registration. The system continuously captures images, processes them to determine current landmark positions, and updates the registration in real-time, allowing the registration to adapt to changes during the procedure rather than remaining fixed from preoperative setup
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and image-guided surgical navigation systems for updating an existing landmark registration of one or more landmark features in a common coordinate space are provided. The image-guided surgical navigation system includes a processor, an imaging device coupled to the processor, and a memory coupled to the processor. The image-guided surgical navigation system may be configured to capture a planar image of a region of interest, where the planar view image includes illustration of the one or more landmark features; generate a depth map from the planar view image; based on the depth map, identify a current location of the one or more landmark features in the common coordinate space; and transform the existing landmark registration to the current location of the one or more landmark features in the common coordinate space.