A novel 4 camera multi-stereo tracking system for application in surgical navigation systems

Abstract In this paper, we present a novel 4 camera stereo system for application as optical tracking component in navigation systems in computer-assisted surgery. This shall replace a common stereo camera system in several applications. The objective is to provide a tracking component consisting of four single industrial cameras. The system can be built up flexibly in the operating room e. g. at the operating room lamp. The concept is characterized by independent, arbitrary camera mounting poses and demands easy on-site calibration procedures of the camera setup. Following a short introduction describing the environment, motivation and advantages of the new camera system, a simulation of the camera setup and arrangement is depicted in Section 2. From this, we gather important information and parameters for the hardware setup, which is described in Section 3. Section 4 includes the calibration of the cameras. Here, we illustrate the background of camera model and applied calibration procedures, a comparison of calibration results obtained with different calibration programs and a new concept for fast and easy extrinsic calibration.