Patent ID: 8457714

Claim:
An apparatus for making and maintaining continuous tissue contact between a tool tip and moving tissue in a patient, comprising: a controllable magnetic field source that produces a magnetic field; a tool having a distal end responsive to said magnetic field; one or more sensors configured to sense a current vector position of said distal end by measuring one or more impedances; a controller for controlling said magnetic field source to control a movement of said distal end according to a feedback calculation wherein said system controller is configured to compute a position error comprising a difference between a desired vector position of said distal end and said current vector position of said distal end; and an operator control that provides tactile feedback to an operator when said position error exceeds a predetermined amount, wherein said tactile feedback is computed by said controller at least in part according to said vector position error, wherein a correction input to said desired vector position is computed based on a position of a heart relative to a frame of reference, such that said system controller compensates for a dynamic position of a wall of a heart chamber such that said distal end maintains contact with said wall of said heart chamber at least in part by measuring at least one impedance between said distal end and said wall.