Patent ID: 6618612
Filing Date: 2003-09-09
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A system for determining the disposition of a probe within the body of a patient, comprising:(a) a probe having one or more probe field transducers mounted thereon; (b) a plurality of reference field transducers independently movable with respect to one another and locatable in desired, customizable positions with respect to the body of the patient; (c) calibration means for determining the relative dispositions of said one or more probe field transducers with respect to one another while said reference field transducers are located in their desired positions; (d) transmission means to actuate said reference field transducers and said one or more probe field transducers to transmit one or more non-ionizing fields and detect the transmitted field, so that each such field is transmitted by one element of a transmitter-receiver pair including a reference field transducer and a probe field transducer, and detected by the other element of such pair; and (e) calculation means to determine the relative disposition of the probe with respect to said reference field transducers from properties of the detected fields and from the relative dispositions of said reference field transducers with respect to one another.