[IGSTK-Users] Wish feature for better user interaction

[Fucang Jia]

Hi, everyone,

IGSTK is a very greatful toolkit for its powerful and steady function.
Here I list several features that I will IGSTK have so that the user
, clinical surgeons, can use IGSTK much easier.

1. igstkTracker class may have a const member function to indicate
the status tracking tool and/or reference tool. When I use Vicra or
Aurora tracker, and attach both tracking tool and reference tool, if
either the tool is occluded or not in the view frustum, the tracker 
can not return the position and orientation. User often can not figure
out which tool can not be tracked. Especially during landmark registration,
a indication public member function can be used to access tool status,
if return TRUE, it is to say that the tool is OK, if return FALSE, it is
to say that the tool need be adjusted to be in tracking status. I used
tool->GetUpdated() to get the status of tools.

2. igstkView class may have more function to set initial camera position
such as SetFocalPoint, SetViewUp, SetPosition, SetViewAngle, etc. User
can setup these value via GUI scrollbar, editbox etc. When user press and
drag middle mouse key mistakely that the image object not seen in the scene,
GUI parameters can be used to reset the default view parameters.

3. Image window/level support via API function or left mouse drag. For 
example, if user drag left mouse key in the horizontal direction, the
window changes, if user drag left mouse key in the perpendicular direction,
the level changes, or user can set window / level value via API function
by GUI controls.

4. Picking 3D fiducial point or entry point on the surface. User may want
to label more fiducials on patient's head surface. More points can cause 
the difficulty of identifying point correspondence in three orthogonal planes.
While surface can offer more intuition to user to identify them. For CT image
dataset, an isosurface can be extracted and the fiducials can be displayed
very clearly. User can firstly pick the fiducials from surface,  the fiducials'
world coordinates can be used to synchronize the three orthogonal plane. Then
user can fine tune the fiducials position in the three orthogonal plane to get 
more precise position. Picking point from 3D surface can made the landmark
registration easy when there are more fiducials.

I do not know whether or not it is appropriate way to put the feature on the 
toolkit level or on the Application level, but such features can make user using
IGSTK better.

Thank you very much!

Fucang
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