ODRPACK Makes World Safe for Brain Surgery

NIST/ITL software recently proved to be a crucial factor in resolving unexplained accuracy issues discovered in the calibration process and equipment at Image Guided Technologies, Inc, a Boulder, Colorado, firm that designs, manufactures and sells three dimensional optical localizers for medical and industrial applications. Their localizer is primarily used in neuro surgery to allow surgeons to track the location of a probe within a patient's skull. Obviously, such localizers must be calibrated to a very high degree of accuracy.

Rogers was approached by Image Guided Technologies to assist them with their anaysis. Applying ODRPACK, software developed by Rogers and Boggs (NIST/ITL) in collaboration with Byrd and Schnabel (CS/CU,Boulder), Image Guided Technologies was able to identify significant calibration problems with the coordinate measuring machine used in their work. In addition, ODRPACK provided Image Guided Technologies with an important tool that enabled them to develop new models for the optical properties of their system. Now, every system they ship is tested and certified for accuracy using software build on ODRPACK.

Caption: The bar-like apparatus at the top of this picture is the actual localizer. It establishes the position of the probe the physician is holding (which is barely visible in this picture although the cord attached to the probe is clearly shown) in relation to the "points" on the half circle on the patients head.

Caption: The probe in this picture --- and the "points" on it --- are clearly visible. The probe is located with respect to the "points" on the "T" on the patient's head.

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Janet E Rogers
7/30/1997