Radial Scanner Imaging System

• US 20100016662A1
• Filed: 02/19/2009
• Published: 01/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Innurvation Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Innurvation Incorporated
• Inventors: Jamieson, Brian Glenn, Grunnet-Jepsen, Anders, Salsman, Kenneth Edward
• Application Number:
  US12/389,202
• Publication Number:
  US 20100016662A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/109
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00096 Optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00177 for 90 degrees side-viewing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00188 with focusing or zooming features
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/041 Capsule endoscopes for imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0615 for radial illumination
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0676 at distal tip of an endoscope
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/07 using light-conductive means, e.g. optical fibres
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 37/005 Photographing internal surfaces, e.g. of pipe, G03B37/02 - G03B37/06 take precedence; instruments for performing medical examinations of cavities or tubes of the body by photographic inspection A61B1/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/555 for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means

Abstract

A radial scanner configured to image the interior of a tube includes, in an embodiment, a housing having a transparent window, a photo-sensing array, a mirror located within the housing and oriented to direct an image around a circumference of an interior surface of the tube outside the transparent window to the photo-sensing array, and a light source configured to illuminate the interior surface of the tube, wherein the photo-sensing array is configured to receive the image around the circumference as a circular line scan. In an embodiment, the radial scanner is deployed as an ingestible capsule. In another embodiment, the radial scanner is deployed as a fiber optic catheter.

Claims

1. A radial scanner configured to image the interior of a tube, comprising:

a housing having a transparent window;

a photo-sensing array;

a mirror located within the housing and oriented to direct an image around a circumference of an interior surface of the tube outside the transparent window to the photo-sensing array; and

a light source configured to illuminate the interior surface of the tube,

wherein the photo-sensing array is configured to receive the image around the circumference as a circular line scan.

2. The radial scanner of claim 1, wherein the mirror is a cylindrically symmetrical reflective element or is an element combining reflective and refractive surfaces.

3. The radial scanner of claim 2, wherein the mirror has a hollowed-out conical shape.

4. The radial scanner of claim 1, wherein the mirror is a radial set of prisms oriented such that reflective hypotenuse surfaces of the prisms direct images from the interior surface of the tube to the photo-sensing array.

5. The radial scanner of claim 1, wherein the photo-sensing array comprises a ring of photo-sensing pixels.

6. The radial scanner of claim 1, wherein the housing is an ingestible capsule.

7. The radial scanner of claim 1, wherein the housing is tethered to an external unit configured to be located outside the tube via an optical fiber.

8. The radial scanner of claim 7, wherein the photo-sensing array is located within the external unit.

9. A medical catheter comprising:

a fiber optic cable;

an intra-cavity unit coupled to a distal end of the fiber optic cable; and

an external unit coupled to a proximal end of the fiber optic cable, wherein the external unit comprises;

a photo-sensing array configured to receive a scanned image, and wherein the intra-cavity unit comprises;

a housing coupled to the distal end of the fiber optic cable, the housing having a transparent window;

a mirror located within the housing and oriented to direct an image around a circumference of an interior surface of a tubular structure outside the transparent window to the photo-sensing array via the fiber optic cable.

10. The medical catheter of claim 9, wherein the intra-cavity unit further comprises a lens configured to direct the image from the mirror into the fiber optic cable.

11. The medical catheter of claim 9, wherein the mirror has a conical shape.

12. The medical catheter of claim 9, wherein the mirror is a radial set of prisms oriented such that reflective hypotenuse surfaces of the prisms direct images from the interior surface of the tube to the photo-sensing array.