Virtual light field projection for CT-simulation

We report a method to project a virtual light field over the patient during CT-simulations of external beam radiotherapy. It can be used to perform all the tasks associated with the physical light field of a conventional simulator. The system consists of a three-dimensional sonic digitizer interfacing with a window-based software on a personal computer. The digitizer can provide the three-dimensional coordinates of any point in space accessible by the digitizer probe. When these coordinates are transformed into the beam's eye view, the position of the digitized point relative to the beam can readily be displayed. Thus, the system establishes a virtual light field in space, which can be "seen" only by the digitizer probe. For any digitized point, the system can immediately show, by the beam's eye view display, whether the point is inside the field, outside of the field, or on the field border. Moreover, this virtual field projection allows one to evaluate external target coverage (or external normal tissue sparing) conveniently and interactively. By simply digitizing the concerned area and viewing its position in the beam's eye view display, one can immediately assess the coverage and if necessary, modify the treatment field accordingly. The system also provides an efficient and essential procedure in CT-simulations for marking treatment portals on the patient. By cruising the digitizer probe on the patient's skin surface under visual and audio guidances, one can promptly find the projection of the field center, field corners, etc., on the patient. Measurements have been performed to study the accuracy of the GP-12 sonic digitizer using rigid phantoms. Based on the measured data, the overall accuracy of the portal localization system is estimated to be +/-2 mm. The system has been in clinical use for our CT simulator.