An automatic registration method for frameless stereotaxy, image guided surgery, and enhanced reality visualization

There is a need for frameless guidance systems to help neurosurgeons to plan the exact location of a craniotomy, to define the margins of tumors and to precisely identify locations of neighboring critical structures. We have developed an automatic technique for registering clinical data, such as segmented MRI or CT reconstructions, with the patient´s head on the operating table. A second method calibrates the position of a video camera relative to the patient. The combination allows a visual mix of live video of the patient with the segmented 3D MRI or CT model, enabling enhanced reality techniques for planning and guiding neurosurgical procedures, and to interactively view extracranial or intracranial structures non-intrusively. Extensions of the method include image guided biopsies, focused therapeutic procedures and clinical studies involving change detection over time sequences of images