Systems and methods for using x-ray field emission to determine instrument position and orientation

A system, comprising:

• an elongate medical device configured to be inserted into a patient anatomy, the elongate medical device comprising:
• a flexible body including a proximal portion and a distal portion;
• and
• an x-ray emitter configured to emit an x-ray beam;
• an x-ray emission detector configured to detect the x-ray beam emitted by the x-ray emitter;
• and
• a control system configured to:
• extract a plurality of reference images from 3-D reference information of the patient anatomy;
• capture, by the x-ray emission detector, an x-ray image of the patient anatomy;
• search for a closest matching reference image between the captured x-ray image and one of the plurality of reference images;
• and
• determine an offset between the captured x-ray image and the closest matching reference image.

A method, comprising:

• determining a predicted pose of an elongate medical device within a patient anatomy;
• extracting a plurality of reference images from 3-D reference information, wherein the plurality of reference images includes a predicted reference image corresponding to the predicted pose of the elongate medical device;
• emitting, by an x-ray emission device of the elongate medical device, an x-ray beam;
• capturing an x-ray image of the patient anatomy, wherein the x-ray image is generated by the x-ray beam, and wherein the captured x-ray image includes captured x-ray attenuation information;
• searching the plurality of reference images for a closest matching reference image to the captured x-ray image;
• and
• determining an offset between the captured x-ray image and the closest matching reference image.