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Magnetic catheter tracker and method therefor

  • US 6,052,610 A
  • Filed: 01/09/1998
  • Issued: 04/18/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/09/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method of tracking an object within a volume, the method comprising steps of:

  • coupling a rotating permanent magnet to said object;

    measuring magnetic fields produced by the rotating permanent magnet remotely or on the surface of or exterior to the volume, to produce measurements; and

    based on said measurements, determining a position and an orientation of the rotating permanent magnet and a position and orientation of said object to which said permanent magnet is coupled comprising;

    inputting said measurements to a processor, said measurements comprising signals representing values of the magnetic fields;

    filtering said signals to produce filtered signals;

    digitizing said filtered signals;

    recording a reference signal from the rotating permanent magnet synchronously with the rotating magnetic dipole;

    performing a direct current (DC) level shift of said digitized signals and the reference signal to reduce an offset from zero of an average magnetic field and produced a level-shifted value; and

    performing a digital lock-in operation based on said level-shifted value.

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