Evaluation of Electromagnetic Tracking for Stereoscopic Augmented Reality Laparoscopic Visualization

Without the requirement of line-of-sight, electromagnetic (EM) tracking is increasingly studied and used in clinical applications. We designed experiments to evaluate a commercial EM tracking system in three situations: using the EM sensor by itself; fixing the sensor onto the handle of a stereoscopic (i.e., 3D) laparoscope; and placing the sensor on the outside surface of the head of a laparoscopic ultrasound (LUS) transducer. The 3D laparoscope and the LUS transducer are core elements in our stereoscopic laparoscopic augmented reality visualization system, which overlays real-time LUS image on real-time 3D laparoscopic video for minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. Jitter error, positional static and dynamic accuracies were assessed with the use of LEGO basic bricks and building plates. The results show that the EM tracking system being tested yields satisfactory accuracy results and the attachment of the sensor to the planned positions on the probes is possible.