Monocular Near-Infrared Optical Tracking with Retroreflective Fiducial Markers for High-Accuracy Image-Guided Surgery

Image-guided surgical procedures demand tracking systems that combine high accuracy, low latency, and minimal footprint to ensure safe and precise navigation in the operating room. To address these requirements, we developed a monocular optical tracking system based on a single near-infrared camera with directional illumination and compact retroreflective markers designed for short-range measurement. Small dodecahedral markers carrying fiducial patterns on each face were fabricated to enable robust detection in confined and variably illuminated surgical environments. Their non-metallic construction ensures compatibility with CT and MRI, and they can be sterilized using standard autoclave procedures. Multiple fiducial families, detection strategies, and optical hardware configurations were systematically assessed to optimize accuracy, depth of field, and latency. Among the evaluated options, the ArUco MIP_36h12 family provided the best overall performance, yielding a translational error of 0.44 ± 0.20 mm and a rotational error of 0.35 ± 0.16° across a working distance of 30-70 cm, based on static position estimates, with a total system latency of 32 ± 8 ms. These results indicate that the proposed system offers a compact, versatile, and precise solution suitable for high-accuracy navigated and image-guided surgery.