Systems and methods for registration of multiple vision systems

1. A medical system comprising:

an image capture probe having a camera at a tip of the image capture probe;

a sensor system; and

a processor configured to:

receive an image from the camera of the image capture probe when the image capture probe is located within an anatomic region of a patient anatomy;

identify a position of the tip of the image capture probe based on information received from the sensor system;

identify a tissue structure in the image;

define a subregion of a model of the anatomic region, the subregion corresponding to an area surrounding the tip of the image capture probe, the subregion including a plurality of virtual tissue structures, wherein a first set of virtual tissue structures of the plurality of virtual tissue structures is situated distally from the tip of the image capture probe;

compare the tissue structure to at least a portion of the plurality of virtual tissue structures to identify a best matched virtual tissue structure; and

perform a registration of the image to the model of the anatomic region based on identification of the best matched virtual tissue structure to identify a virtual probe position for the tip of the image capture probe with respect to the model.

2. The medical system of claim 1 , wherein boundaries of the subregion are defined based on a stackup of sensor tolerances for the sensor system.

3. The medical system of claim 1 , wherein boundaries of the subregion are defined based on anatomic movement that includes at least one of patient breathing or tissue deformation in response to surgical instrumentation.

4. The medical system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to identify structural aspects of the tissue structure in the image and identify a subset of the plurality of virtual tissue structures that match the structural aspects.

5. The medical system of claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to compare the tissue structure to the subset of the plurality of virtual tissue structures to identify the best matched virtual tissue structure.

6. The medical system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to guide movement of the image capture probe within the patient anatomy based on the registration.

7. The medical system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to generate the model of the anatomic region, wherein the model is three-dimensional.

8. A method for guiding a flexible catheter within a patient anatomy, the method being implemented using a processor and comprising:

receiving an image from a camera positioned at a tip of an image capture probe housed within the flexible catheter, the image capture probe being located within an anatomic region of the patient anatomy;

identifying a position of the tip of the image capture probe based on information received from a sensor system;

identifying a tissue structure in the image;

defining a subregion of a model of the anatomic region, the subregion corresponding to an area surrounding the tip of the image capture probe and including a plurality of virtual tissue structures, wherein a first set of virtual tissue structures of the plurality of virtual tissue structures is situated distally from the tip of the image capture probe;

comparing the tissue structure to at least a portion of the plurality of virtual tissue structures to identify a best matched virtual tissue structure; and

performing a registration of the image to the model of the anatomic region based on identification of the best matched virtual tissue structure to thereby identify a virtual probe position for the tip of the image capture probe with respect to the model.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

guiding movement of the image capture probe within the patient anatomy based on the registration.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein defining the subregion of the model comprises:

defining boundaries of the subregion based on a stackup of sensor tolerances for the sensor system.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein defining the subregion of the model comprises:

defining boundaries of the subregion based on anatomic movement that includes at least one of patient breathing or tissue deformation in response to surgical instrumentation.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

identifying structural aspects of the tissue structure in the image; and

identifying a subset of the plurality of virtual tissue structures that match the structural aspects.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein comparing the tissue structure to at least the portion of the plurality of virtual tissue structures comprises:

comparing the tissue structure to the subset of the plurality of virtual tissue structures to identify the best matched virtual tissue structure.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein comparing the tissue structure to at least the portion of the plurality of virtual tissue structures comprises:

calculating an optimum similarity measure for each of the plurality of virtual tissue structures in the subset; and

selecting a virtual tissue structure in the subset having a greatest optimum similarity measure as the best matched virtual tissue structure.

15. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

generating the model of the anatomic region, wherein the model is three-dimensional.

16. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

generating a registered virtual image from the model based on the registration.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

displaying either the registered virtual image or information extracted from the registered virtual image overlaid on the image received from the camera.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein displaying either the registered virtual image or the information extracted from the registered virtual image comprises:

displaying the information extracted from the registered virtual image overlaid on the image received from the camera with a transparency that varies depending on a quality of match between the registered virtual image and the image.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

generating at least one of a micro-tracking image or a macro-tracking image from the registered virtual image, wherein the micro-tracking image and the macro-tracking image each includes a marker indicating the tip of the image capture probe registered with the model; and

displaying the at least one of the micro-tracking image or the macro-tracking image on a display system.

20. A method for guiding a flexible catheter within a patient anatomy, the method comprising:

receiving an image from a tip of an image capture probe housed within the flexible catheter, the image capture probe being located within an anatomic region of the patient anatomy;

identifying a position of the tip of the image capture probe based on information received from a sensor system;

identifying a tissue structure in the image and structural aspects of the tissue structure;

defining a subregion of a model of the anatomic region based on the position of the tip of the image capture probe, the subregion including a plurality of virtual tissue structures, wherein a first set of virtual tissue structures of the plurality of virtual tissue structures is situated distally from the tip of the image capture probe;

comparing the tissue structure to at least a portion of the plurality of virtual tissue structures to identify a best matched virtual tissue structure;

performing a registration of the image to the model of the anatomic region based on identification of the best matched virtual tissue structure to thereby identify a virtual probe position for the tip of the image capture probe with respect to the model; and

guiding movement of the image capture probe and the flexible catheter within the patient anatomy based on the registration.