The Open IGT Link Library

Introduction

Welcome to the Open IGT Link Library. The Open IGT Link protocol is a simple but extensible network communication protocol to transfer various types of data among software and devices used in image-guided therapy (IGT) scene e.g. surgical navigation software, tracking device, robotic device, imaging scanner. The protocol can handle image, tracking data, transform, device control and monitoring command, and other user-defined data types. It is designed to work in the application layer of the TCP/IP stack, but not limited to it; developers can use this protocol with UDP/IP or other network protocol models.

The overall goal to provide this open network protocol is to make system integration for IGT application easier. To achieve this objective, we have the following rules to design the protocol:

• Open. It is important to invite the IGT developers as many as possible to make the protocol more universal, compatible and reliable. It is also important to allow commercial use without any fee, to increase the number of commercial softwares and devices compatible with Open IGT Link, which contributes interoperativity in the IGT scene.

• Simple. In IGT environment, wide variety of architectures are used, from embedded systems to high-performance computers. It is difficult to support all of them by providing a single open-source library, thus the developers sometime have to implement the interface by themselves.

• Extensible. Type of data transfered in the IGT scene varies by clinical applications. The protocol must have mechanism for the developers to define their own data types.

• Reliable. The protocol should provides a mechanism to verify data integrity. This is extremely important for the software to get approved and commercialized.

More Information

The Home Page of the Open IGT Link is

http://www.na-mic.org/Wiki/index.php/OpenIGTLink