METHOD FOR PATIENT REGISTRATION, CALIBRATION, AND REAL-TIME AUGMENTED REALITY IMAGE DISPLAY DURING SURGERY

1 . A method for registering patient anatomical data in a surgical navigation system, the method comprising:

placing a registration grid over the patient at a first position, wherein the registration grid comprises a plurality of fiducial markers;

by means of a medical scanner, scanning both a patient anatomy of interest and the registration grid to obtain patient anatomical data;

providing a pre-attached tracking array comprising a plurality of fiducial markers that is pre-attached to the patient at a second position;

by means of a fiducial marker tracker, capturing the 3D position and/or orientation of the pre-attached tracking array and the registration grid; and

registering the patient anatomical data with respect to the 3D position and/or orientation of the pre-attached tracking array as a function of the relative position and/or orientation of the registration grid and the pre-attached tracking array.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the pre-attached tracking array is pre-attached to the patient internal anatomy around a surgical field.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fiducial marker tracker uses an optical, electromagnetic or acoustic technology for capturing the 3D position and/or orientation.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

using the fiducial marker tracker for real-time tracking of the pre-attached tracking array;

generating, by a surgical navigation image generator, a surgical navigation image comprising the patient anatomical data adjusted with respect to the 3D position and/or orientation of the pre-attached tracking array; and

showing the surgical navigation image by means of a 3D display system such that an augmented reality image, collocated with a surgical field, is visible to a viewer looking towards the surgical field.

5 . The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:

by means of the fiducial marker tracker, real-time tracking of at least one of: a surgeon's head, a 3D display and surgical instruments to provide current 3D position and/or orientation data; and

adjusting the surgical navigation image with respect to the tracked current 3D position and/or orientation data.

6 . The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:

by means of the fiducial marker tracker, real-time tracking of a robot arm marker array; and

generating the surgical navigation image further comprising the robot arm virtual image adjusted with respect to the tracked position and orientation of the robot arm marker array.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising identifying the fiducial markers of the registration grid in volumetric data provided by the medical scanner using a convolutional neural network.

8 . A method for registering patient anatomical data in a surgical navigation system, the method comprising:

by means of a medical scanner, scanning a volume comprising a patient anatomy of interest and a registration grid placed over the patient at a first position, to obtain patient anatomical data, wherein the registration grid comprises a plurality of fiducial markers;

by means of a fiducial marker tracker, capturing a 3D position and/or orientation of a pre-attached tracking array that has been pre-attached to the patient at a second position and of the registration grid placed over the patient at the first position, wherein the pre-attached tracking array comprises a plurality of fiducial markers; and

registering the patient anatomical data with respect to the 3D position and/or orientation of the pre-attached tracking array as a function of the relative position and/or orientation of the registration grid and the pre-attached tracking array.