Patent ID: 11883105
Assignee: SYNAPTIVE MEDICAL INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 9:
10. A surgical navigation system for intraoperatively tracking a medical equipment in real time, the system comprising:
a first medical equipment;
a first collinear array comprising a plurality of a first set of fiducial markers coupled with the first medical equipment, each fiducial marker of the first set of fiducial markers disposed at a known fixed distance relative to another fiducial marker of the first set of fiducial markers in relation to the first medical equipment, the first set of fiducial markers comprising a plurality of active fiducial markers configured to emit a plurality of signals, each active fiducial marker comprising a flashing light-emitting diode, the plurality of active fiducial markers configured to emit the plurality of signals at a distinct combination of frequencies that is distinguishable from that of a second set of fiducial markers having another plurality of active fiducial markers to uniquely identify the first medical equipment relative to a second medical equipment;
a first camera for capturing an image of the first medical equipment on a single image plane, to thereby provide a captured image, the captured image comprising an image of at least some fiducial markers of the first set of fiducial markers;
a second camera for tracking the second set of fiducial markers; and
a processor configured to receive the input from the first camera and the second camera, the processor configured by a set of instructions to:
register the second set of fiducial markers within a three-dimensional virtual space;
segment a plurality of representations of the first set of fiducial markers from the captured image, to thereby provide a plurality of segmented representations;
calculate a three-dimensional orientation and a position of the first medical equipment using the plurality of segmented representations; and

register the three-dimensional orientation and the position of the first medical equipment within the three-dimensional virtual space.