Method to register an optical tracking system with a particle detector system

Abstract

A novel method and a related system are configured to place measured trajectories into a voxel space, which moves with respect to a particle detector system. The trajectories are measured in a detector reference frame. The voxel space, typically fixed with respect to the object being imaged, is tracked optically with markers and a camera system. A decipherable correlation is established between a set of markers and a set of detector elements. This correlation provides coordinate transformation definitions to place the trajectories into the voxel space in medical imaging, treatment planning, and/or therapeutic applications. The novel method provides a clever process to register an optical tracking system with a particle detector system, which improves quality assurance, accuracy, speed, and operating cost efficiencies of ion, particle, and/or radiation-based imaging, treatment planning, or therapies. This novel method may be utilized in proton imaging, helium imaging, other ion-based imaging, or x-ray imaging.