OpenIGTLink

Open IGT Link is a simple network protocol intended for trackers, robots and other devices to send data to the main application. Some devices might accept commands.

• Optotrack
• MRI real time image
• JHU robots

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

License: new BSD license ©2008 Insight Software Consortium

People / Organizations

• Luis Ibanez, Kitware
• Junichi Tokuda, BWH
• Csaba Csoma, JHU
• Jack Blevins, Acousticmed
• Patrick Cheng, Georgetown University
• Haying Liu, BWH
• Insight Software Consortium
• National Alliance for Medical Image Computing (NA-MIC)

Protocol

Header Structure

 Bytes
 0   2                       14                                      34             42               50              58
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+.....
 | V |          TYPE         |              DEVICE_NAME              |   TIME_STAMP  |   BODY_SIZE   |     CRC64     |   BODY  		  
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+.....

Byte Order

Big endian should be used for all numerical values (version, body size, crc). Unused spaces are padded with 0 (binary).

Header Fields

Data	Type	Description
V	Unsigned short (16bit)	Version number (1)
TYPE	char[8]	Type name of data
DEVICE_NAME	char[20]	Unique device name
TIME_STAMP	64 bit unsigned int	Timestamp or 0 if unused
BODY_SIZE	64 bit unsigned int	Size of body in bytes
CRC	64 bit unsigned int	64 bit CRC for body data

Data types

IMAGE

Image data consists of ascii header information followed by binary image pixel data. (Ascii header is used to maintain compatibility with SlicerDaemon connection)

space right-anterior-superior\n
dimensions <xsize> <ysize> <zsize>\n
space_origin (<x>, <y>, <z>)\n
space_directions (<tx>, <ty>, <tz>) (<sx>, <sy>, <sz>) (<nx>, <ny>, <nz>) \n
kinds space space space\n
components 1\n
scalar_type <scalar type #>\n
<binary image data>

Descriptions:

Data	Type	Description
<xsize>, <ysize>, <zsize>	text number (real)	Center position of the image in RAS coordinate
<tx>, <ty>, <tz>	text number (real)	Transverse vector (direction for 'i' index) / The length represents pixel size in 'i' direction
<sx>, <sy>, <sz>	text number (real)	Transverse vector (direction for 'j' index) / The length represents pixel size in 'j' direction
<nx>, <ny>, <nz>	text number (real)	Normal vector of image plane(direction for 'k' index) / The length represents pixel size in 'z' direction or slice thickness
<scalar type #>	Pixel scalar type number (Ascii)	2:int8 3:int8 4:int16 5:uint16 6:int32 7:uint32 10:float32 11:float64
<binary image data>	Binary image data (<xsize>*<ysize>*<zsize>* (pixel size)	Image data

TRANSFORM

The transform data is upper three rows of 4x4 transformation matrix, where element (3,3) is assumed to be 1.

 Bytes (Body)
 58      62      66      70      74      78      82      86      90      94      98     102     106
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
 | (0,0) | (1,0) | (2,0) | (0,1) | (1,1) | (2,1) | (0,2) | (1,2) | (2,2) | (0,3) | (1,3) | (2,3) | 
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

POSITION

• 3D Position
• Optional: Orientation

STATUS

 Bytes (Body)
 58   60            68                           88
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+.....
 | C |  Sub Code   |       Status name           |   Status message (optional)
 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+.....

Data	Type	Description
C	Unsigned short (16bit)	Status code groups: 1-Ok, 2-Generic Error, ... (see below)
Sub Code	64 bit integer	Sub code for the error (ex. 0x200 - file not found)
Error name	char[20]	"Error", "Ok", "Starting up" - can be anything, don't relay on this
Status Message (optional)	char[ BodySize - 30 ]	Optional (English) description (ex. "File C:\test.ini not found")

Status codes:
0 No Errors Found (use status 1 instead!)
1 OK (Default status)
2 Unknown error
3 Panic mode (emergency)
4 Not found (file, configuration, device etc)
5 Access denied
6 Busy
7 Time out / Connection lost
8 Overflow / Can't be reached
9 Checksum error
10 Configuration error
11 Not enough resource (memory, storage etc)
12 Illegal/Unknown instruction (or feature not implemented)
13 Device not ready (starting up)
14 Manual mode (device does not accept commands)
15 Device disabled
16 Device not present
17 Device version not known
18 Hardware failure
19 Exiting / shut down in progress

Open questions

1. What if the application receives hundreds of "position" packets?
   Should we add "keep only the last" flag to the packet type?
2. Authentication (other than Unique Name)
3. Compression
4. Priority
5. Duplicate messages

Resources

• Slicer 3 Image Guided Therapy (IGT) suite
• Middleware features discussion
• Initial discussion about requirements
• BioImage Suite VVLink Tool (uses TCL/TK object streaming)