Robust intraoperative US probe tracking using a monocular endoscopic camera
Published in Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI), 2013
Recommended citation: Jayarathne UL, McLeod AJ, Peters TM, Chen ECS, (2013). "Robust intraoperative US probe tracking using a monocular endoscopic camera"; in Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention -- MICCAI 2013, LNCS 8151, pp. 363-370. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40760-4_46
In the context of minimally-invasive procedures involving both endoscopic video and ultrasound, we present a vision-based method to track the ultrasound probe using a standard monocular video laparoscopic instrument. This approach requires only cosmetic modification to the ultrasound probe and obviates the need for magnetic tracking of either instrument. We describe an Extended Kalman Filter framework that solves for both the feature correspondence and pose estimation, and is able to track a 3D pattern on the surface of the ultrasound probe in near real-time. The tracking capability is demonstrated by performing an ultrasound calibration of a visually-tracked ultrasound probe, using a standard endoscopic video camera. Ultrasound calibration resulted in a mean TRE of 2.3mm, and comparison with an external optical tracker demonstrated a mean FRE of 4.4mm between the two tracking systems.