Surgical navigation system and method using audio feedback

Abstract

A computer based system and method is disclosed for positional guidance in real-time surgical applications using audio feedback. The invention is based on translating the 5 spatial parameters of a surgical instrument or device, such as its position and velocity with respect to a given coordinate system, into a set of audio feedback parameters along the coordinates of a generalized audio space. Error signals which correspond to deviations of the actual instrument trajectory from an optimal trajectory stored in a computer memory are translated into a set of audio signals that indicate to the user whether correction is required. Accordingly, the system and method can be used in a variety of applications that require accurate special positioning. The audio feedback system and method of this invention employ a rich and comparatively unburdened sensory modality in the operating room and can be practiced independent from or along with standard visually-oriented systems and techniques used in medical pre-planning and/or virtual reality devices.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.