Performance of optically tracked instrumented pointers: a systematic literature review

Based on the narrative synthesis, motion capture-based pointers for motion analysis can have errors as large as 5 mm, while the expected errors of surgical navigation pointers are below 1 mm. The most critical factors in pointer performance, besides the measurement volume of the tracking system, are the instrument's length, the arrangement of the tracked instrumenting markers and the quality of the tip's calibration, which determines the relative position of the pointer tip compared to the instrumenting markers. The insights from the research covered in this review can help set a benchmark for performance for current and future localiser systems, both in motion analysis and in surgical navigation. Users of such systems can use this information to check and compare the performance of their systems, while developers and researchers can use the data to develop more accurate systems and pointers.