Assesment of metallic distortions of an electromagnetic tracking system

Electromagnetic tracking systems are affected by the presence of metal or more general conductive objects. In this paper results of two protocols are presented, which will access the amount of distortions caused by certain type of metals. One of the main application areas of electromagnetic tracking systems is the medical field. Therefore this paper concentrates on types of metals, which are common in a medical environment, like typical tool and implant materials and OR table steel. Results are obtained and compared for the first generation of Aurora systems (Aurora 1), released in September 2003 and for the new Aurora system (Aurora 2), which was released in September 2005.