Patent ID: 7945310

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: tracking a current position of a surgical instrument through a body lumen during an endoscopic procedure; generating data indicative of the current position of the surgical instrument for a plurality of positions of the surgical instrument during the endoscopic procedure; storing said data as a dataset representing a first path taken by the surgical instrument through the body lumen during the endoscopic procedure; causing an indication of the first path to be displayed to a user based on the dataset; determining a correlation between the first path and a second path through the body lumen, wherein determining the correlation includes determining a deviation of a position of the surgical instrument from the second path by projecting the first path and the second path onto each of three orthogonal planes, computing for each of the projections a first line connecting a first point of the first path and a second point of the second path and a second line connecting a third point on the first path and a fourth point on the second path, and computing an area of a shape defined by each of the projections of the first path and the second path and the corresponding first and second lines; and outputting a summed total of the calculated areas as an indication of the correlation to a user.