Evaluation and Comparison of Target Registration Error in Active and Passive Optical Tracking Systems.

Optical tracking systems combined with imaging modalities such as computed tomography and magnetic reso-nance imaging are important parts of image guided surgery systems. By determining the location and orientation of sur-gical tools relative to a patient's reference system, tracking systems assist surgeons during the planning and execution of image guided procedures. Therefore, knowledge of the tracking system-induced error is of great importance.