Aurora Tracking Needle

The Aurora Tracking Needle is designed to show how precise interventions could be supported by the Aurora system. The Aurora Tracking Needle consists of two components, the stylus, which incorporates a sensor coil in its tip and the cannula, a hollow tube, down which the stylus fits. The needle is inserted into tissue and the location of the tip is monitored by the Aurora system.

The position and orientation of the sensor is determined by the Aurora System in five degrees of freedom (5DOF). Due to the tip mounted sensor, tracking accuracy is not affected by motion of organs, as mentioned above, nor by bending of the needle. When the tip is at the required position (as determined by the Aurora system) the stylus is removed, leaving the cannula in place at the required position.

A cable with a convenient length of approximately 1.8 m extends from the stylus to a connector which also houses a serial read only memory (SROM) device that is programmed with the needle characterization data.

The origin of the needle’s local coordinate system is defined at its tip and stored in the SROM device. The Aurora system takes this data into account for position calculation.

The volumetric placement accuracy is 1 mm RMS (2 mm 95% confidence interval) while orientation accuracy is 0.5° RMS (1° 95% confidence interval) (ISO 5725-1: 1994 (E)).

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