ACOUSTIC ORTHOPEDIC TRACKING SYSTEM AND METHODS

摘要

Systems, devices, and methods are disclosed for acquiring and providing information about orthopedic features of a body using acoustic energy. In some aspects, an acoustic orthopedic tracking system includes portable acoustic transducers to obtain orthopedic position information for feeding the information to an orthopedic surgical system for surgical operations.

主权项

1. An acoustic orthopedic tracking system, comprising:
an acoustic probe device structured to include a support frame having a curved shape to interface a body part of a biological subject, and an array of transducer elements arranged on the curved support frame and operable to transmit acoustic waveforms toward a target volume of an orthopedic structure in the body part and to receive returned acoustic waveforms that return from at least part of the target volume of the orthopedic structure; an acoustic coupling component coupled to the array of transducer elements and operable to conduct the acoustic waveforms between the transducer elements and the body part of the biological subject when in contact with the acoustic coupling component; a signal generation and processing device in communication with the acoustic probe device and structured to include (i) a transmit and receive electronics (TRE) unit, and (ii) a data processing unit including a memory to store data and a processor coupled to the memory to process data, wherein the TRE unit includes a waveform generator in communication with the data processing unit and one or more waveform synthesizers in communication with the waveform generator to generate one or more waveforms according to waveform information provided by the data processing unit via the waveform generator, wherein the transmittable acoustic waveforms correspond to the one or more waveforms generated by the signal generation and processing device; and a position tracking device in communication with the signal generation and processing device and operable to track the position of the transducer elements of the acoustic probe device, wherein the data processing unit is operable to process the received returned acoustic waveforms to produce a data set including the information from the at least part of the target volume, the information including at least one of location coordinates, orientation, or motion of the orthopedic structure of the body part with six degrees of freedom (6 DoF).