Simulation of an optical-sensing technique for tracking surgical tools employed in computer-assisted interventions

Establishing the accuracy of optical-sensing systems for tools used in surgical procedures is an essential and nontrivial task. This paper shows that an optical-tracking system may be regarded as a cooperative system in that its accuracy is related not only to the optical-tracking system itself, but also to the parameters of the tracked objects. A numerical simulation method is used to obtain the accuracy distribution of imaginary markers, and, through statistical analysis, it is concluded that accuracy is inversely proportional to the root of the number of real markers and varies in proportion to increasing noise on the real marker positions. The results can be used to optimize the design of sensor-navigated surgical tools and improve accuracy when placing reference frames in radiology tasks. The work is also relevant to any position-sensing application that involves point-based rigid transformations.