Comparative assessment of optical tracking systems for soft tissue navigation with fiducial needles

Abstract

We compare two optical tracking systems with regard to their suitability for soft tissue navigation with fiducial needles: The Polaris system with passive markers (Northern Digital Inc. (NDI); Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), and the MicronTracker 2, model H40 (Claron Technology, Inc.; Toronto, Ontario, Canada). We introduce appropriate tool designs and assess the tool tip tracking accuracy under typical clinical light conditions in a sufficiently sized measurement volume. To assess the robustness of the tracking systems, we further evaluate their sensitivity to illumination conditions as well as to the velocity and the orientation of a tracked tool. While the Polaris system showed robust tracking accuracy under all conditions, the MicronTracker 2 was highly sensitive to the examined factors.