Fast and practical head tracking in brain imaging with Time-of-Flight camera

This paper investigates the potential use of Time-of-Flight cameras (TOF) for motion correction in medical brain scans. TOF cameras have previously been used for tracking purposes, but recent progress in TOF technology has made it relevant for high speed optical tracking in high resolution medical scanners. Particularly in MRI and PET, the newest generation of TOF cameras could become a method of tracking small and large scale patient movement in a fast and user friendly way required in clinical environments. We present a novel methodology for fast tracking from TOF point clouds without the need of expensive triangulation and surface reconstruction. Tracking experiments with a motion controlled head phantom were performed with a translational tracking error below 2mm and a rotational tracking error below 0.5°.