Flexible tracking article and method of using the same
View Patent ↗A method of registering an article having a surface to previously created scan data of the article includes the steps of providing a flexible substrate having multiple tracking points attached to the substrate, applying the substrate to the article to be registered, creating a model of the surface of the article from a location of each tracking point; and registering the model with the previously created scan data. A method of creating a model of a surface having a shape and an article to enable the creation of a model of a surface are also disclosed.
1. A method of registering an article having a surface to previously created scan data of the article, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a flexible substrate having multiple tracking points attached to the substrate;
applying the flexible substrate to the surface of the article to be registered;
creating a model of the surface of the article from a location of each tracking point; and
registering the location of each tracking point in the model with the previously created scan data of the article by matching the locations of the tracking points in the model to the scan data of the article within a predetermined error level.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the previously created scan data is pre-surgical scan data.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein there are at least 10 tracking points.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is used to track surgical implements using a computer assisted surgical navigation system.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the tracking points are optical.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the tracking points are light emitting diodes.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the substrate is adhesively applied to the article.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the article is a portion of human anatomy.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the human anatomy is forehead and nose.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein there are at least 25 tracking points.
11. The method of claim 1 including the additional step of trimming the flexible substrate to fit the article without deactivating any tracking points remaining attached to the flexible substrate.
12. A method of creating a model of a surface of a patient, wherein the surface has a shape, the method comprising the steps of:
providing a flexible substrate having multiple tracking points attached to the substrate;
attaching the flexible substrate to the surface;
determining a location for each tracking point using a surgical navigation system; and
calculating the shape of the surface from the locations of the tracking points relative to each other.
13. The method of claim 12 wherein there are at least 10 tracking points.
14. The method of claim 12 wherein the method is used to track surgical implements using a computer assisted surgical navigation system.
15. The method of claim 12 wherein the tracking points are optical.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the tracking points are light emitting diodes.
17. The method of claim 12 wherein the substrate is adhesively applied to the article.
18. The method of claim 12 wherein the article is a portion of human anatomy.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the human anatomy is a forehead and nose.
20. The method of claim 12 wherein there are at least 25 tracking points.
21. The method of claim 12 including the additional step of trimming the flexible substrate to fit the surface without deactivating any tracking points remaining attached to the flexible substrate.