Methods and systems for identifying, marking, and inventorying large quantities of unique surgical instruments
First Claim
1. An apparatus for automatically identifying a surgical instrument, the apparatus comprising:
- a capture module comprising hardware to capture multiple attributes of the surgical instrument, wherein the capture module comprises an image capture device including at least a first camera and a second camera, wherein the first camera captures a first image of the surgical instrument, wherein the second camera captures a second image of the surgical instrument, and wherein the first and second cameras are relatively positioned to capture respective first and second perspectives of the surgical instrument;
an attribute database comprising multiple stored attributes of a plurality of reference surgical instruments;
a comparison module programmed to generate a comparison score for the surgical instrument, wherein the comparison module is programmed to generate the comparison score by receiving multiple attributes captured by the capture module and comparing it to the multiple attributes stored in the attribute database, and wherein the comparison module is programmed to generate the comparison score by at least comparing the first and second images of the surgical instrument to the stored images of the plurality of reference surgical instruments; and
an exporting module configured to receive and export the comparison score generated by the comparison module,wherein the image capture device is configured to capture an image of teeth of the surgical instrument, and wherein the comparison module is programmed to generate the comparison score by at least comparing the captured image of the teeth of the surgical instrument to stored images of teeth of the plurality of reference surgical instruments.
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Abstract
An apparatus for automatically identifying a surgical instrument, the apparatus comprising a capture module, an attribute database, a comparison module, and an exporting module, the capture module comprising hardware operable to capture multiple attributes of the surgical instrument, the attribute database comprising multiple stored attributes of a plurality of reference surgical instruments, the comparison module programmed to generate a comparison score for the surgical instrument, wherein the comparison module is programmed to generate the comparison score by receiving multiple attributes captured by the capture module and comparing it to the multiple attributes stored in the attribute database, and the exporting module configured to receive and export the comparison score generated by the comparison module.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. An apparatus for automatically identifying a surgical instrument, the apparatus comprising:
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a capture module comprising hardware to capture multiple attributes of the surgical instrument, wherein the capture module comprises an image capture device including at least a first camera and a second camera, wherein the first camera captures a first image of the surgical instrument, wherein the second camera captures a second image of the surgical instrument, and wherein the first and second cameras are relatively positioned to capture respective first and second perspectives of the surgical instrument; an attribute database comprising multiple stored attributes of a plurality of reference surgical instruments; a comparison module programmed to generate a comparison score for the surgical instrument, wherein the comparison module is programmed to generate the comparison score by receiving multiple attributes captured by the capture module and comparing it to the multiple attributes stored in the attribute database, and wherein the comparison module is programmed to generate the comparison score by at least comparing the first and second images of the surgical instrument to the stored images of the plurality of reference surgical instruments; and an exporting module configured to receive and export the comparison score generated by the comparison module, wherein the image capture device is configured to capture an image of teeth of the surgical instrument, and wherein the comparison module is programmed to generate the comparison score by at least comparing the captured image of the teeth of the surgical instrument to stored images of teeth of the plurality of reference surgical instruments. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of identifying a surgical instrument, comprising:
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capturing multiple attributes of the surgical instrument, wherein capturing the multiple attributes comprises capturing at least a first image and a second image of the surgical instrument, wherein the first image and second image provide respective first and second perspectives of the surgical instrument; comparing the multiple attributes to multiple attributes of a plurality of reference instruments, wherein the multiple attributes of the plurality of reference instruments is stored in an attribute database, wherein comparing the multiple captured attributes comprises at least comparing the first and second images of the surgical instrument to stored images of the plurality of reference surgical instruments; generating a comparison score for the surgical instrument, wherein the comparison score is based on the comparing the multiple captured attributes to the multiple stored attributes of a plurality of reference instruments; and exporting the comparison score, wherein capturing the multiple attributes comprises capturing an image of teeth of the surgical instrument, and wherein comparing the multiple captured attributes comprises at least comparing the image of the teeth of the surgical instrument to stored images of teeth of the plurality of reference surgical instruments. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of building a database of at least one attribute of each of a plurality of reference materials, the method comprising:
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determining whether a surgical instrument comprises an identification mark; capturing the at least one attribute of the surgical instrument when the surgical instrument is determined not to comprise an identification mark; generating an identity of the surgical instrument; exporting the at least one attribute and the identity of the surgical instrument to the database; capturing multiple attributes of the surgical instrument; comparing the multiple attributes to multiple attributes of a plurality of reference instruments, wherein the multiple attributes of the plurality of reference instruments are stored in an attribute database; generating a comparison score for the surgical instrument, wherein the comparison score is based on the comparing the multiple captured attribute to multiple attributes of a plurality of reference instruments; and exporting the comparison score, wherein capturing the multiple attributes comprises capturing an image of teeth of the surgical instrument, and wherein comparing the multiple captured attributes comprises at least comparing the image of the teeth of the surgical instrument to stored images of teeth of the plurality of reference surgical instruments. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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Specification