Navigation Systems and Methods for Reducing Tracking Interruptions During a Surgical Procedure

A method of operating a surgical system comprising a navigation system including a localizer including a field-of-view and a tracker, and one or more controllers coupled to the navigation system, the method comprising the one or more controllers:

• detecting the tracker within the field-of-view of the localizer;
• generating a virtual field-of-view boundary based on the field-of-view of the localizer;
• associating a virtual object with the tracker;
• detecting a virtual collision between the virtual object and the virtual field-of-view boundary;
• and
• enabling a response based on detecting the virtual collision.

A surgical system comprising:

• a navigation system including a localizer including a field-of-view and a tracker;
• and
• one or more controllers coupled to the navigation system, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to:
• detect the tracker within the field-of-view of the localizer with a line-of-sight relationship between the tracker and the localizer;
• generate a virtual line-of-sight boundary based on the line-of-sight relationship;
• associate a virtual object with a physical object;
• detect a virtual collision between the virtual object and the virtual line-of-sight boundary;
• and
• enable a response based on detection of the virtual collision.

A surgical system comprising:

• a navigation system including a localizer including a field-of-view and a tracker;
• and
• one or more controllers coupled to the navigation system, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to:
• detect the tracker within the field-of-view of the localizer;
• generate a virtual field-of-view boundary based on the field-of-view of the localizer;
• associate a virtual object with the tracker;
• detect a virtual collision between the virtual object and the virtual field-of-view boundary;
• and
• enable a response based on detection of the virtual collision.