Methods and systems for tracking and guiding sensors and instruments

Abstract

A shared-housing ultrasound transducer and machine-vision camera system is disclosed for registering the transducer's x, y, z position in space and pitch, yaw, and roll orientation with respect to an object, such as a patient's body. The position and orientation are correlated with transducer scan data, and scans of the same region of the object are compared in order to reduce ultrasound artifacts and speckles. The system can be extended to interoperative gamma probes or other non-contact sensor probes and medical instruments. Methods are disclosed for computer or remote guiding of a sensor probe or instrument with respect to saved positions and orientations of the sensor probe.

1 . A spatial registration apparatus comprising:
 a gamma ray detector;   a ranging sensor rigidly connected with the gamma ray detector; and   at least one processor operatively coupled with a memory, the memory having instructions for execution by the at least one processor, wherein the memory stores a relative location and orientation between the gamma ray detector and the rigidly connected ranging sensor, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to capture distance values to selected points on a surface of an object scanned by the ranging sensor, create a three-dimensional (3D) model of the surface using the distance values, determine a pose of the ranging sensor with respect to the 3D model of the surface of the object, and then transform the pose, using the stored relative location and orientation between the gamma ray detector and the rigidly connected ranging sensor, to determine a first spatial position and orientation of the gamma ray detector with respect to the 3D model of the surface of the object, the at least one first processor associating scanning data from the gamma ray detector with the first spatial position and orientation of the gamma ray detector to create a first spatially registered scan, the scanning data from the gamma ray detector being time synchronized with the first spatial position and orientation of the gamma ray detector.