OpenIGTLink

Integration of transperineal prostate robot (BRP -- Brigham and Women's Hospital/Johns Hopkins University/Queen's University/Acoustic Med Systems

Integration of transperineal prostate robot and navigation software (BRP -- Brigham and Women's Hospital/Johns Hopkins University/Queen's University/Acoustic Med Systems

Prototype integration of a neurosurgical robot and Slicer3 using OpenIGTLink, Hideo Fujimoto, Nagoya Inst Tech., Japan

Screenshot of tracker tool visualization on the 3D Slicer. Brigham and Women's Hopsital

Overview

The Open IGT Link protocol is a simple but extensible data format to transfer various types of data among software and devices used in image-guided therapy (IGT) scene e.g. surgical navigation software, tracking device, robotic device, imaging scanner. The protocol can handle image, tracking data, transform, device control and monitoring command, and other user-defined data types. It is designed to work in the application layer of the TCP/IP stack, but not limited to it; developers can use this protocol with UDP/IP or other network protocol models. 3D Slicer' supports Open IGT Link and has interface module as OpenIGTLinkIF, which is currently available in the nightly release.

This is a generalization of the previous Tracker Daemon.

What's New

• January 8, 2008, Added a link to the new OpenIGTLink Slicer interface documentation.
• December 19, 2008, The OpenIGTLink Library now works with Solaris 8 and 10. (Tested with GNU C++ compiler. We haven't tested on Solaris 9.)
• November, 2008, 3D Slicer OpenIGTLink Interface module is now available in the 3D Slicer trunk repository. It is coming with several new features. (you need to enable OpenIGTLink option explicitly before compiling the 3D Slicer)
• Oct 20, 2008, Several updates in OpenIGTLink/Matlab page. Now Matlab OpenIGTLink interface supports sending transform data.
• Sep 5, 2008, OpenIGTLink was presented in MICCAI 2008 Workshop on Systems and Architectures for Computer Assisted Interventions. The slides are available here.

Protocol

• Standard OpenIGTLink Protocol description
• Open discussions on OpenIGTLink Protocol
• Extended Protocols
  • JHU MRI robot and encoders
  • JHU TRUS robot
  • BWH Real-time Imaging Interface

Library

• The OpenIGTLink Library
• Tutorial for the OpenIGTLink Library
• Which is the best approach to implement Open IGT Link in your application?
• The OpenIGTLink Library Discussions

Interfaces / Software

• OpenIGTLink Interface for 3D Slicer
  • (Old) OpenIGTLink Interface for 3D Slicer
• Experimental version of OpenIGTLink Interface for 3D Slicer -- A lot more features are supported
• Simulator programs to test OpenIGTLink interfaces
• OpenIGTLink Interface for Matlab / Octave

Devices

Please see the list of the OpenIGTLink-compliant hardware and software.

• MRI real time image (currently supporting GE, planning to invite other vendors)
• JHU robots and encoders - JHU page
• List all devices supported by IGSTK
• NDI Optotrak (by BWH + Nagoya Institute of Technology)
• Robin Medical EndoScout (by BWH)
• Aurora
• Optotrack
• FlockOfBirds
• Polaris

• future:
  • commercial naviation system
  • other open source effort (Siemens)

(Please contact us if you would like to include other devices.)

Tutorial / Workshops

• Tutorial on image guided therapy (IGT) using Slicer 3 and Open IGT Link is available at IGT:ToolKit
• Systems & Architecture for Computer Assisted Intervention @ MICCAI 2008, NY

People / Organizations

• Luis Ibanez, Kitware
• Junichi Tokuda, BWH
• Csaba Csoma, JHU
• Jack Blevins, Acousticmed
• Patrick Cheng, Georgetown University
• Haying Liu, BWH
• Insight Software Consortium
• Jumpei Arata, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan (Nagoya robot control)

Supports

• Enabling Technologies for MRI-Guided Prostate Interventions funded by National Institute of Health (PI: Clare Tempany, MD)
• National Center for Image Guided Therapy (NCIGT)
• National Alliance for Medical Image Computing (NA-MIC)
• Intelligent Surgical Instrument Project sponsored by The Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Japan

License

New BSD license ©2008 Insight Software Consortium

Other Resources

• Slicer 3 Image Guided Therapy (IGT) suite
• Slicer 3 Daemon
• Tracker Daemon
• OpenDMTP - Open Device Monitoring and Tracking Protocol
• Uniform Driver Interface (UDI)
• Meetings concerning Open IGT Link
• A backup of this site

Contact

Please contact Junichi Tokuda for further information.