ENDOSCOPE GUIDANCE BASED ON IMAGE MATCHING
First Claim
1. A system for endoscopic examination comprising an endoscope and a computing means, wherein said computing means is configured to perform the steps of:
- storing data for a set of schemas generated during a first endoscopic examination employing a first endoscope having a first distal end, each schema including a first still image of a region in a cavity of a subject and a direction of said first distal end at a time of taking said first still image, wherein said first endoscope is said endoscope or another endoscope;
storing a second still image generated by said endoscope during a second endoscopic examination of said cavity; and
finding a matching image among a set of first still images in said set of schemas, wherein said matching image and said second still image depict a same region in said cavity.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of navigating a cavity of a subject employing images from a previous navigation is provided. In a first endoscopic examination, a set of schemas and at least one bookmark are saved in a data storage device. Each schema includes at least a still image in a cavity and a direction of a distal end. At least one bookmark is defined as at least one schema at a point of interest. In a second endoscopic examination, still images during navigation of an endoscope are compared with still images in the set of schemas to find a match, and use the information derived from the match to determine the location and the orientation of the distal end. An endoscopic system for effecting this method and a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium embodying a program for operating such an endoscopic system are also provided.
42 Citations
25 Claims
-
1. A system for endoscopic examination comprising an endoscope and a computing means, wherein said computing means is configured to perform the steps of:
-
storing data for a set of schemas generated during a first endoscopic examination employing a first endoscope having a first distal end, each schema including a first still image of a region in a cavity of a subject and a direction of said first distal end at a time of taking said first still image, wherein said first endoscope is said endoscope or another endoscope; storing a second still image generated by said endoscope during a second endoscopic examination of said cavity; and finding a matching image among a set of first still images in said set of schemas, wherein said matching image and said second still image depict a same region in said cavity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A method of operating at least one endoscope comprising:
-
generating a set of schemas in a first endoscopic examination of a cavity of a subject employing a first endoscope having a first distal end, each schema including a first still image of a region in a cavity of a subject and a direction of said first distal end at a time of taking said first still image; generating a second still image in a second endoscopic examination of said cavity employing an endoscope having a distal end, wherein said endoscope is said first endoscope or another endoscope; and finding a matching image among a set of first still images in said set of schemas, wherein said matching image and said second still image depict a same region in said cavity. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A non-transitory machine-readable data storage device embodying a program of machine-readable instructions that can be performed in a computing means, wherein said machine-readable instructions includes steps for:
-
storing data for a set of schemas generated during a first endoscopic examination employing a first endoscope having a first distal end, each schema including a first still image of a region in a cavity of a subject and a direction of said first distal end at a time of taking said first still image; storing a second still image generated by an endoscope having a distal end during a second endoscopic examination of said cavity, wherein said endoscope is said first endoscope or another endoscope; and finding a matching image among a set of first still images in said set of schemas, wherein said matching image and said second still image depict a same region in said cavity - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
-
Specification