Automatic localization of the center of fiducial markers in 3D CT/MRI images for image-guided neurosurgery

Image-guided neurosurgery systems (IGNS) play an important role in intracranial surgery. Adhesive markers on the skin are widely used for patient-to-image registration, with the centers of these markers serving as fiducial points in point-pair registration. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm to automatically locate the center of these markers. The algorithm compares the marker model and the surface patches from Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) images of the patient’s head. Automatic localization of these centers will help to reduce the human error in registration and speed up the registration process. Experiments with clinical 3D CT and MRI data confirm that this algorithm can accurately locate the centers of these markers.