Patent ID: 8831701

Claim:
A system to collect map data of a volume in a patient, comprising: an instrument positionable within the volume; a first electrode associated with the instrument; a second electrode associated with the instrument; an insulator operable to selectively cover at least one of the first and second electrodes; a processor configured to analyze data from the first electrode and the second electrode to determine uni-polar sensing by one of the first electrode or the second electrode or bi-polar sensing by both of the first electrode and the second electrode; and a switch coupled to the processor and operable to select between recording data from one or both of the first electrode and the second electrode; wherein when recording data with both electrodes a bi-polar signal is recorded by the processor and when only recording data with one of the electrodes a uni-polar signal is recorded by the processor; wherein the processor is operable to determine whether either or both of the first electrode or the second electrode is covered by the insulator at least based on the data from the first electrode and the second electrode.