View source for Documentation/4.3/Modules/OpenIGTLinkRemote/BrainlabTutorial

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=About This Page=

Brainlab surgical navigation system provides a research interface called "IGTLink", which allows 3D Slicer and other OpenIGTLink-compatible software to connect and query images and tracking data through the network. This page describes how to connect 3D Slicer to the Brainlab system.

=Prerequisite=

To follow this tutorial, you will need:

*Brainlab navigation system connected to the local area network. IGTLink must be activated.
*[http://download.slicer.org| 3D Slicer ver. 4.3.x]
*[http://slicerigt.github.io SlicerIGT Extension], which you can install through [[Documentation/4.3/SlicerApplication/ExtensionsManager|Extension Manager]].

=Things We Can Do with Brainlab's IGTLink Interface=
*Query a list of images
*Query images
*Query targets
*Query trajectories (not available in 3D Slicer yet...)
*Stream real-time tracking data

=Establish Connection=

#On the Brainlab's console, activate "IGTLink". The Brainlab system start waiting for a connection from 3D Slicer as a TCP server.
#On 3D Slicer, open "IGT"->"OpenIGTLink IF" and Open "Connector" tab.
#Click "+" button to add a new connector named "IGTLConnector". The connector will show up on the list.
#Select "IGTLConnector" from the list.
#Check "Client" radio button and type the IP/hostname and the port number in the "Hostname" and "Port" text box. The default port number is 22222.
#Click "Active"
#Check if any message shows up on the Brainlab's console.
#If 3D Slicer is successfully connected to the Brianlab system, "Status" in the list of connector shows "ON".

=Query Image Data=

#Open "IGT"->"OpenIGTLink Remote" module in 3D Slicer
#Choose "IGTLConnector" from "Connector" pulldown menu.
#In the "Query Data" frame, make sure that "Image" radio button below "Update" button is selected.
#Click "Update" button. 3D Slicer will send a query to the Brainlab system and receive a list of images available.
#Select images from the list. You can select/deselect images by clicking the same item multiple times.
#Click "Get selected items". Slicer starts downloading the images from the Brainlab system.
#Once the images are downloaded, images will become available in 3D Slicer. You can choose them from the image list in the 2D viewers.

=Stream Tracking Data=

(If you haven't gone through "Query Image Data" section:
#Open "IGT"->"OpenIGTLink Remote" module in 3D Slicer
#Choose "IGTLConnector" from "Connector" pulldown menu.

Then,
#In the "Tracking Control" frame, click "Start" button. The Brainlab system will start pushing tracking data to 3D Slicer.

To visualize tracking data
#Open "IGT"->"OpenIGTLink IF" module
#Open "I/O Configuration Tree"
#If you successfully received tracking data from the Brainlab system, you could see "+" on the left of "IN" branch under "IGTLConnector".
#Click "+" to expand the "IN" branch. You could see a list of tracking data.
#If you click 'eye' icon in the "Vis" column, a locator model shows up in the 3D Viewer.

=Contributors of this Tutorial=
*Isaiah Norton, BWH
*Alireza Mehrtash, BWH
*Junichi Tokuda, BWH
*Nobuhiko Hata, BWH