US-20260124020-A1 - SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL LOCATION AND ORIENTATION OF IDENTIFICATION MARKERS

US20260124020A1US 20260124020 A1US20260124020 A1US 20260124020A1US-20260124020-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tool system comprising a handheld implement having a passive vectorized tracking marker permanently integrated with the implement at a predetermined location on the implement in a predetermined orientation with respect to the implement; and a database comprising geometric information describing the at least one of a rotationally asymmetric shape of the tracking marker and a rotationally asymmetric pattern disposed on the tracking marker. The system may further comprise: a tracker configured for obtaining image information about the tracking marker when the tracking marker is in a field of view of the tracker; and a controller having a processor and memory, the controller in communication with the database and the tracker, the processor programmable for receiving and processing image information from the tracker; accessing the database to retrieve the geometric information; and comparing the image information with the geometric information. The handheld implement may be three-dimensionally tracked by the tracker.

Inventors

Ehud (Udi) Daon
Martin Gregory Beckett

Assignees

NAVIGATE SURGICAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20260101

Claims (20)

1 . A passive vectorized tracking marker having a three-dimensionally trackable location and three-dimensionally trackable orientation, the passive vectorized tracking marker configured to be rigidly and removably connected to a fiducial reference by a tracking pole, the passive vectorized tracking marker comprising a marked portion that has a mathematically describable three-dimensional shape, wherein the marked portion has a rotationally asymmetric pattern of contrasting elements.
2 . The passive vectorized tracking marker of claim 1 , wherein the rotationally asymmetric pattern of contrasting elements is disposed on contrasting tiles on the marked portion of the tracking marker.
3 . The passive vectorized tracking marker of claim 1 , wherein the rotationally asymmetric pattern includes an identifiably unique pattern.
4 . The passive vectorized tracking marker of claim 1 , wherein the marked portion of the passive vectorized tracking marker is one of a segment of an ellipsoid surface and a segment of a cylindrical surface.
5 . The passive vectorized tracking marker of claim 1 , wherein pattern elements of the rotationally asymmetric pattern have perimeters comprising mathematically describable curved sections.
6 . The passive vectorized tracking marker of claim 1 , wherein the pattern elements include round dots.
7 . The passive vectorized tracking marker of claim 1 , wherein the rotationally asymmetric pattern of contrasting elements is one of scribed, engraved, stamped and embossed on the tracking marker.
8 . A surgical monitoring system comprising a fiducial reference adapted to be rigidly and removably fixed to a surgical site of a patient, a fiducial-based passive vectorized tracking marker configured to be removably attached to the fiducial reference in a predetermined fixed three-dimensional relative position and orientation with respect to the fiducial reference, a tracker configured for obtaining image information within a field of view comprising the fiducial-based passive vectorized tracking marker and the surgical site, and a controller configured to spatially relate the image information with previously obtained scan data of the surgical site with the fiducial reference fixed to the surgical site, wherein the fiducial-based passive vectorized tracking marker has a marked portion that has a mathematically describable three-dimensional shape bearing a first asymmetric pattern.
9 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 8 , further comprising one or more surgical implement having an implement-based passive vectorized tracking marker permanently integrated with the surgical implement, wherein each of the implement-based passive vectorized tracking markers has a different asymmetric pattern from any other tracking marker within the field-of-view; the field-of view of the tracker comprises at least one Implement-based passive vectorized tracking marker; and the controller is configured to relate a three-dimensional position and orientation of the one or more surgical implement to the fiducial reference based on the image information and the scan data.
10 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 9 , further comprising a display system in communication with the controller wherein: the controller is information-wise coupled to the tracker and includes a processor with memory and a software program having a series of instructions which when executed by the processor determines the relative position and orientation of the fiducial reference based on information from the tracker; and relates the current position and orientation of each of the the one or more surgical implements to the position and orientation of the fiducial reference in the scan data, and wherein the display system is adapted to show the current arrangement of the one or more implement and the fiducial reference during a surgical procedure at the surgical site.
11 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 8 , characterized in that the fiducial reference is one of marked and shaped to allow the fiducial reference to be uniquely identified from the scan data.
12 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 8 , characterized by the fiducial reference being at least one of marked and shaped for having at least one of its location and its orientation determined from the scan data.
13 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 12 , characterized by the fiducial-based tracking marker being configured to be removably and rigidly connected to the fiducial reference by a first tracking pole.
14 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 13 , characterized in that the first tracking pole and fiducial reference are configured to allow the first tracking pole to connect to a single unique location on the fiducial reference in a first single unique three-dimensional orientation.
15 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 13 , characterized in that the fiducial reference is configured for the attachment in a single second unique three-dimensional orientation of at least a second tracking pole attached to a second fiducial-based tracking marker within the field-of-view of the tracker.
16 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 12 , characterized in that the asymmetric pattern is uniquely identifiable by the controller and allows at least one of the location and the orientation of the fiducial-based passive vectorized tracking marker to be determined by the controller based on the image information and the scan data.
17 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 8 , characterized in that the controller is configured for calculating the locations of anatomical features in the proximity of the fiducial reference.
18 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 8 , characterized in that the fiducial reference is repeatably attachable in the same three-dimensional orientation to the part of the surgical site.
19 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 8 , wherein the marked portion of the first passive vectorized tracking marker has a shape that is one of a segment of an ellipsoid surface and a segment of a cylindrical surface.
20 . The surgical monitoring system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more surgical implement has an implement-based passive vectorized tracking marker monolithically integrated with the surgical implement.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/813,820, filed Aug. 23, 2024 which is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/692,437, filed Mar. 11, 2022, now U.S. Pat. No. 12,070,365; which is a Divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/409,835, filed May 12, 2019; the disclosures of all of which are incorporated by reference herein. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The invention relates to location monitoring hardware and software systems. More specifically, the field of the invention is that of surgical equipment and software for monitoring surgical conditions. Description of the Related Art Visual and other sensory systems are known, with such systems being capable of both observing and monitoring surgical procedures. With such observation and monitoring systems, computer aided surgeries are now possible, and in fact are being routinely performed. In such procedures, the computer software interacts with both clinical images of the patient and observed surgical images from the current surgical procedure to provide guidance to the physician in conducting the surgery. For example, in one known system a carrier assembly bears at least one fiducial marker onto an attachment element in a precisely repeatable position with respect to a patient's jaw bone, employing the carrier assembly for providing registration between the fiducial marker and the patient's jaw bone and implanting the tooth implant by employing a tracking system which uses the registration to guide a drilling assembly. With this relatively new computer implemented technology, further improvements may further advance the effectiveness of surgical procedures. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, in an embodiment, involves an implement having a plurality of interchangeable portions each having a working tip; and an invariant portion bearing the tracking marker. The invariant portion of the implement may be a rigid positioning and orienting portion of the implement. The implement may further comprise: a contactlessly interrogatable microchip disposed on the invariant portion of the implement, the microchip comprising a memory; a database of geometric information stored in the memory of the microchip, the geometric information describing: the at least one of a rotationally asymmetric shape and a rotationally asymmetric pattern; and spatial relationships between the at least one of a rotationally asymmetric shape and a rotationally asymmetric pattern and the working tip of each of the plurality of interchangeable portions. The implement may be a drill; the rigid positioning and orienting portion comprising a handle and the interchangeable portion comprising a drill bit. The contrasting pattern elements may have perimeters comprising mathematically describable curved sections. The mathematically describable curved sections may be conic sections. The contrasting pattern elements may include round dots. The rotationally asymmetric pattern is scribed, engraved, stamped, or embossed on the tracking marker. The implement may further comprise: a contactlessly interrogatable microchip disposed on the handheld implement, the microchip comprising a memory; and a database of geometric information stored in the memory of the microchip, the geometric information describing the at least one of a rotationally asymmetric shape and a rotationally asymmetric pattern. The implement may have a working tip and the geometric information further may describe the spatial relationship between the working tip and the at least one of a rotationally asymmetric shape and a rotationally asymmetric pattern. The rotationally asymmetric pattern may comprise contrasting pattern elements, the contrasting pattern elements having colors contrasting with a color of a background of the passive vectorized tracking marker and disposed at occupiable locations within a unit cell of the pattern, the occupiable locations within the pattern being previously stored in the database. The rotationally asymmetric pattern may comprise at least a first and a second rotationally asymmetric pattern. The second pattern may be displaced on the passive vectorized tracking marker from the first pattern by a distance different from a shortest distance between occupiable locations within the first pattern and different from a multiple of the shortest distance between occupiable locations within the first pattern. In another aspect, a trackable tool system is provided comprising: a handheld implement having a three-dimensionally trackable location and three-dimensionally trackable orientation, the implement comprising a passive vectorized tracking marker permanently integrated with the implement at a predetermined location on the implement in a predetermined orientation with respect to the implement, the tracking marker having at least one of a rotationally asymmetric shape and a rotationa