Systems and methods for improved electromagnetic tracking

A method of tracking a pose of a tracked structure using an inverted-direction electromagnetic (EM) navigation system, comprising:

• generating a signal comprising a plurality of frequencies;
• receiving the signal comprising the plurality of frequencies at a transmitter coil array, the transmitter coil array comprising a plurality of transmitting micro coils, each of the plurality of transmitting micro coils being coupled individually to a portion of a tracked structure;
• in response to receiving the signal comprising the plurality of frequencies, generating, radiating and emitting an EM field at each of the plurality of transmitting micro coils based on the received signal, where each of the corresponding EM field is a distinct EM field as a portion of a navigation region;
• detecting each of the distinct generated, radiated and emitted EM fields at a receiver coil array comprising at least one receiving macro coil;
• and
• determining a pose of each of the plurality of transmitting micro coils in the navigation region;
• wherein the EM field generated, radiated and emitted at each one of the plurality of transmitting micro coils comprises a generated, radiated and emitted spread spectrum EM field sensed by the at least one receiving macro coil, wherein the spread spectrum EM field comprises a spread spectrum of frequencies of 1 Hz to 30 MHz with 10 Hz to 400 kHz of the spread spectrum of frequencies transmitted at a sample rate of 375 kHz;
• and
• wherein each of the transmitting micro coils is smaller than the at least one receiving macro coil.

A computer program product comprising one or more non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a computing system to cause the computing system to track a pose of a tracked structure using an inverted-direction electromagnetic (EM) navigation system, the computer-executable instructions including instructions that are executable to cause the computing system to perform at least the following:

• generate a signal comprising a plurality of frequencies;
• send the signal comprising the plurality of frequencies to a transmitter coil array, the transmitter coil array comprising a plurality of transmitting micro coils that are between 1 millimeter (mm) to 10 mm in their lamest size, each of the plurality of transmitting micro coils being coupled separately to a portion of a tracked structure, wherein the transmitter coil array generates, radiates and emits an EM field at each of the plurality of transmitting micro coils based on the received signal, where each of the corresponding EM field is a distinct EM field as a portion of a navigation region;
• detect each of the distinct generated, radiated and emitted EM fields via a receiver coil array comprising at least one receiving macro coil that is between 10 mm to 60 mm in its largest size;
• and
• determine a pose of each of the plurality of transmitting micro coils in the navigation region;
• wherein the plurality of frequencies comprises a spread spectrum of frequencies, wherein the generated, radiated emitted EM field created at each one of the plurality of transmitting micro coils comprises a generated, radiated and emitted spread spectrum EM field sensed by the at least one receiving macro coil;
• and
• wherein each of the transmitting micro coils is smaller than the at least one receiving macro coil.