A system to determine information related to a selected device used with a surgical navigation system for navigating a procedure relative to an anatomy, the system comprising an information tag operable to store, receive, or transmit a selected information, an information tag reader configured to read and/or write selected information from/to the information tag, a surgical instrument associated with the information tag wherein the information tag includes the selected information specific to the surgical instrument, a communication system interconnecting the information tag reader and the navigation system wherein the selected information read from the information tag is transmitted to the navigation system, and a display operable to display a representation of the surgical instrument based upon the information read by the information tag reader from the information tag.
