Comparative Analysis of Non-Rigid Registration Techniques for Liver Surface Registration.

Non-rigid surface-based soft tissue registration is crucial for surgical navigation systems, but its adoption still faces several challenges due to the large number of degrees of freedom and the continuously varying and complex surface structures present in the intra-operative data. By employing non-rigid registration, surgeons can integrate the pre-operative images into the intra-operative guidance environment, providing real-time visualization of the patient's complex pre- and intra-operative anatomy in a common coordinate system to improve navigation accuracy. However, many of the existing registration methods, including those for liver applications, are inaccessible to the broader community.