A method and system to use an augmented reality device in a surgical procedure. The method includes rendering, on the display of the device, a model of a patient reference object； in response to receiving input, moving the model of the patient reference object in an augmented reality coordinate system； determining that the model is aligned with the patient reference object in real world space when viewed through the display and, based on that determination, identifying a first transform from the augmented reality coordinate system to a navigation coordinate system used by an optical navigation system for tracking the patient reference object； subsequently transferring patient image data from the navigation coordinate system to the augmented reality coordinate system using an inverse of the first transform； and displaying the patient image data on the display to augment a real world view of a patient.
