System and method for improving the distortion tolerance of an electromagnetic tracking system

1. A method of improving a distortion tolerance of an electromagnetic tracking system, the method comprising:

using a plurality of coil combinations to calculate a plurality of position and orientation values;

using a computing device to analyze the plurality of position and orientation values to determine differences between the plurality of position and orientation values and removing the position and orientation values that are above an acceptable range or that are above a predetermined threshold value; and

using an optimizing technique to change the operating conditions of the electromagnetic tracking system to reduce the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optimizing technique is changing the transmitter frequencies to reduce the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising ramping through an available range of transmitter frequencies to determine a set of optimal transmitter frequencies to reduce the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values.

4. The method of claim 3 , applying the set of optimal transmitter frequencies to a transmitter assembly of the electromagnetic tracking system to reduce the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating a distortion indicator at each individual frequency in the range of the available transmitter frequencies.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising continuing operation of the electromagnetic tracking system using the set of optimal transmitter frequencies that correspond to the lowest distortion indicator levels.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising continuously calculating a distortion indicator arbitrarily changing the transmitter frequency, and calculating a distortion indicator at each individual transmitter frequency.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using only those position and orientation values that are below an acceptable range or below a predetermined threshold value for determining and visualizing the position and orientation of an object being tracked by the electromagnetic tracking system.

9. A method of improving the distortion tolerance of an electromagnetic tracking system, the method comprising:

using a plurality of different coil combinations to calculate a plurality of position and orientation values;

using a computing device to calculate a distortion indicator;

comparing the distortion indicator to the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values; and

using an optimizing technique to change the operating conditions of the electromagnetic tracking system when the distortion indicator is greater than a predetermined threshold value to reduce the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values.

10. A method of improving the distortion tolerance of an electromagnetic tracking system, the method comprising:

using a plurality of different transmitter frequencies and a computing device to determine a set of optimal transmitter frequencies in real-time for use by the electromagnetic tracking system; and

using the set of optimal transmitter frequencies to reduce the distortion caused by a distorter within the tracking volume.

11. A method of improving the distortion tolerance of an electromagnetic tracking system, the method comprising:

using a plurality of different transmitter frequencies and a computing device to calculate a plurality of position and orientation values;

using the computing device to compare permutations of the plurality of position and orientation values to determine differences between the plurality of position and orientation values; and

using an optimizing technique to change the operating conditions of the electromagnetic tracking system to reduce the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising calculating a distortion indicator at each individual transmitter frequency.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the system continues operation using the set of transmitter frequencies that correspond to the lowest distortion indicator levels.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the distortion indicator is calculated continuously and the frequency set is changed arbitrarily or based on a preset pattern within an available frequency range whenever the distortion indicator is greater than a predetermined threshold value until a usable frequency set is found.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the distortion indicator can be calculated for each frequency or frequency set in use at the same time, and the solution tied to the best distortion indicator level can be selected for use each time.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the distortion indicator is recomputed based on a subset of the solution set after removing one or more position and orientation solutions from the solution set based on an alternative indicator, such as having all but one of the solutions close in agreement, resulting in the one being removed.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein multiple transmitter frequencies can be used for each coil concurrently.

18. A method of improving the distortion tolerance of an electromagnetic tracking system, the method comprising:

using a plurality of different coil combinations to calculate a plurality of position and orientation values;

using a computing device to analyze the plurality of position and orientation values to determine differences between the plurality of position and orientation values; and

removing a particular coil or coils from a coil set to reduce the level of disagreement between the plurality of position and orientation values when there are multiple position and orientation values from the set and a particular coil or coils is used repeatedly in position and orientation values that are above an acceptable range of position and orientation values or above a predetermined threshold value.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising ramping through an available range of transmitter frequencies to determine a set of optimal transmitter frequencies to reduce the differences between the plurality of position and orientation values.