Markerless Head Tracking for Accurate and Accessible Neuronavigation
This work provides a more accessible and comfortable alternative to marker-based neuronavigation for clinical and research settings, though it is an incremental improvement over prior markerless methods.
Markerless head tracking using low-cost cameras and facial geometry modeling achieved median discrepancies of 2.32 mm and 2.01° compared to marker-based systems in 50 subjects, offering sufficient accuracy for transcranial magnetic stimulation while reducing cost and improving comfort.
Neuronavigation is widely used in biomedical research and interventions to guide the precise placement of instruments around the head to support procedures such as transcranial magnetic stimulation. Traditional systems, however, rely on subject-mounted markers that require manual registration, may shift during procedures, and can cause discomfort. We introduce and evaluate markerless approaches that replace expensive hardware and physical markers with low-cost visible and infrared light cameras incorporating stereo and depth sensing, combined with algorithmic modeling of the facial geometry. Validation with 50 human subjects yielded a median tracking discrepancy of only 2.32 mm and 2.01$^\circ$ for the best markerless algorithm compared to a conventional marker-based system, which indicates sufficient accuracy for transcranial magnetic stimulation and a substantial improvement over prior markerless results. The study also suggests that integration of the data from the various camera sensors can improve the overall accuracy further. The proposed markerless neuronavigation methods can reduce setup cost and complexity, improve patient comfort, and expand access to neuronavigation in clinical and research settings.