Is it true that magnetic trackers are hard to use in medical environments?
A. Yes, they can be, especially if the technology is first generation vintage. In the last 10 years many medical device manufacturers have evaluated these early trackers and found them inadequate, usually because of accuracy distortion and improper placement. When developing the 3rd generation tracking technology the focus was and is to address the previous generation’s inadequacies. One of the major improvements has been metal compensation techniques. The improvement of these techniques continues. Bottom line: don’t give up on electromagnetic tracking due to its previous limitations.
