Systems and methods for collecting and processing physical space data for use while performing an image-guided surgical (IGS) procedure are provided. The system and method includes obtaining a computer model of a non-rigid structure of interest in a patient and performing a rigid alignment of the computer model and surface data in a patient space associated with at least a portion of the non-rigid structure. The system and method also include computing a deformation of the computer model that provides a non-rigid alignment of the computer model and surface data, the deformation computed using a set of boundary conditions defined for each node of the computer model based on the rigid alignment and a kernel function. Additionally, the system and method can include displaying data for facilitating the IGS procedure based on the deformation.
