Anser EMT: the first open-source electromagnetic tracking platform for image-guided interventions

Jaeger, Herman Alexander; Franz, Alfred M.; O’Donoghue, Kilian; Seitel, Alexander; Trauzettel, Fabian; Maier-Hein, Lena; Cantillon-Murphy, Pádraig

doi:10.1007/s11548-017-1568-7

Cited by 35 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…For comparison, the position measurements were repeated in the same setup on the patient stretcher but without a US probe (US suite). In addition, reference data of comparable experiments (position and rotation) in a distortion-free lab environment (Lab ref) is available from a previous study [9].…”

Section: Standardized Assessment Of Tracked Ultrasoundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open-Source Tracked Ultrasound with Anser Electromagnetic Tracking

et al. 2019

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Image-guided Interventions (IGT) have shown a huge potential to improve medical procedures or even allow for new treatment options. Most ultrasound(US)-based IGT systems use electromagnetic (EM) tracking for localizing US probes and instruments. However, EM tracking is not always reliable in clinical settings because the EM field can be disturbed by medical equipment. So far, most researchers used and studied commercial EM trackers with their IGT systems which in turn limited the possibilities to customize the trackers in order minimize distortions and make the systems robust for clinical use. In light of current good scientific practice initiatives that increasingly request research to publish the source code corresponding to a paper, the aim of this work was to test the feasibility of using the open-source EM tracker Anser EMT for localizing US probes in a clinical US suite for the first time. The standardized protocol of Hummel et al. yielded a jitter of 0.1 ± 0.1 mm and a position error of 1.1 ± 0.7 mm, which is comparable to 0.1 mm and 1.0 mm of a commercial NDI Aurora system. The rotation error of Anser EMT was 0.15±0.16 • , which is lower than at least 0.4 • for the commercial tracker. We consider tracked US as feasible with Anser EMT if an accuracy of 1-2 mm is sufficient for a specific application.

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Section: Standardized Assessment Of Tracked Ultrasoundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open-Source Tracked Ultrasound with Anser Electromagnetic Tracking

et al. 2019

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“…The resulting sensor coordinates from the solver can be streamed to the user application using OpenIGTLink [13]. The proposed framework was applied to the Anser EMT project [6]. The original open-source codebase was implemented in Matlab § and was fully refactored to conform with the framework.…”

Section: Framework Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(c) Guided therapy applications use this interface to ensure crossplatform compatibility.This paper outlines a framework to encourage integration of new electromagnetic tracking hardware into the current IGI design flow. The resulting framework was implemented in the Python programming language and applied to the open-source Anser EMT system[6] shown inFig. 2.…”

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confidence: 99%

An Open Framework Enabling Electromagnetic Tracking in Image-Guided Interventions

Jaeger

Hinds

Cantillon-Murphy

2018

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Electromagnetic tracking (EMT) is a core platform technology in the navigation and visualisation of image-guided procedures. The technology provides high tracking accuracy in non-line-of-sight environments, allowing instrument navigation in locations where optical tracking is not feasible. Integration of EMT in complex procedures, often coupled with multi-modal imaging, is on the rise, yet the lack of flexibility in the available hardware platforms has been noted by many researchers and system designers. Advances in the field of EMT include novel methods of improving tracking system accuracy, precision and error compensation capabilities, though such system-level improvements cannot be readily incorporated in current therapy applications due to the 'blackbox' nature of commercial tracking solving algorithms. This paper defines a software framework to allow novel EMT designs and improvements become part of the global design process for image-guided interventions. In an effort to standardise EMT development, we define a generalised cross-platform software framework in terms of the four system functions common to all EMT systems; acquisition, filtering, modelling and solving. The interfaces between each software component are defined in terms of their input and output data structures. An exemplary framework is implemented in the Python programming language and demonstrated with the open-source Anser EMT system. Performance metrics are gathered from both Matlab and Python implementations of Anser EMT considering the host operating system, hardware configuration and acquisition settings used. Results show indicative system latencies of 5 ms can be achieved using the framework on a Windows operating system, with decreased system performance observed on UNIX-like platforms.

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“…This paper proposes a novel distortion detection scheme which utilises only the EMT transmitter. The design is based on an existing transmitter design for the open-source Anser EMT tracking system [ 17 , 18 ]. The modified design allows calculation of distortion error from the perspective of the transmitter based on measurements of the mutual inductance between constituent transmitter coils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most system transmitter designs employ multiple transmitting coils with each generating a magnetic field at a different frequency to fulfil this requirement. EMT transmitters come in a number of different arrangements including tri-axial [ 6 ], planar coil [ 19 ] and planar printed circuit board (PCB) [ 17 , 18 ] such as shown in Figure 2 a. In this paper we alter the role of the magnetic transmitter design such that each transmitter coil can also behave as a receiver.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distorter Characterisation Using Mutual Inductance in Electromagnetic Tracking

Jaeger

Cantillon-Murphy

2018

Sensors

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Electromagnetic tracking (EMT) is playing an increasingly important role in surgical navigation, medical robotics and virtual reality development as a positional and orientation reference. Though EMT is not restricted by line-of-sight requirements, measurement errors caused by magnetic distortions in the environment remain the technology’s principal shortcoming. The characterisation, reduction and compensation of these errors is a broadly researched topic, with many developed techniques relying on auxiliary tracking hardware including redundant sensor arrays, optical and inertial tracking systems. This paper describes a novel method of detecting static magnetic distortions using only the magnetic field transmitting array. An existing transmitter design is modified to enable simultaneous transmission and reception of the generated magnetic field. A mutual inductance model is developed for this transmitter design in which deviations from control measurements indicate the location, magnitude and material of the field distorter to an approximate degree. While not directly compensating for errors, this work enables users of EMT systems to optimise placement of the magnetic transmitter by characterising a distorter’s effect within the tracking volume without the use of additional hardware. The discrimination capabilities of this method may also allow researchers to apply material-specific compensation techniques to minimise position error in the clinical setting.

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Anser EMT: the first open-source electromagnetic tracking platform for image-guided interventions

Abstract: By providing an open-source platform for research investigations, we believe that novel and collaborative approaches can overcome the limitations of current EMT technology.

Cited by 35 publications

References 15 publications

Open-Source Tracked Ultrasound with Anser Electromagnetic Tracking

Open-Source Tracked Ultrasound with Anser Electromagnetic Tracking

An Open Framework Enabling Electromagnetic Tracking in Image-Guided Interventions

Distorter Characterisation Using Mutual Inductance in Electromagnetic Tracking

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