Operational interface in a multi-viewing element endoscope

• US 9,560,953 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2014
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EndoChoice Incorporated (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Original Assignee: EndoChoice Incorporated (Boston Scientific Corporation)
• Inventors: Gilreath, Mark, Parks, Will, Levy, Avi, Ashery, Yoram, Kirma, Yaniv, Shimony, Anat, Jacobs, Charlie, Wieth, Stephan, Ladd, Doug, Gershov, Yuri, Krivopisk, Leonid
• Primary Examiner(s): TRUONG, NGUYEN T
• Application Number:
  US14/273,923
• Publication Number:
  US 20140333743A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,005 Days
• Field of Search: 348/74
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00009 of image signals during a use of endoscope
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00048 Constructional features of the display
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0005 combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00091 Nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0011 Manufacturing of endoscope parts
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00177 for 90 degrees side-viewing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00181 for multiple fixed viewing angles A61B1/00193 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00188 with focusing or zooming features
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/015 Control of fluid supply or evacuation
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/051 Details of CCD assembly
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0615 for radial illumination
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0684 using light emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/268 Signal distribution or switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 Television signal processing therefor

Abstract

The present specification describes an endoscopy display system including an endoscope with a distal tip having at least three image capturing components, and a handle with an actuator that, when activated, generates a video processing command; a controller including a video processing system adapted to transmit commands to the three image capturing components and receive an image feed from each of said three image capturing components; and a display system, including at least one monitor that concurrently receives and concurrently visually displays each of said processed image feeds, where the video processing system is adapted to process each of said image feeds in accordance with the video processing command to cause at least one of changing a position of, zooming into or out of; recording; freezing; highlighting; or superimposing a navigation indicator upon the at least one of the processed image feeds.

Claims

1. An endoscopy display system comprising:

an endoscope comprising a distal tip, wherein said distal tip has at least three image capturing components, and a handle, wherein said handle has at least one actuator that, when activated, generates a video processing command;

a controller external to said endoscope, wherein said controller comprises a video processing system adapted to transmit commands to said three image capturing components and receive an image feed from each of said three image capturing components; and

a display system, wherein said display system comprises at least one monitor that concurrently receives each of said processed image feeds from the video processing system and concurrently visually displays each of said processed image feeds and wherein said video processing system is adapted to process each of said image feeds in accordance with the video processing command to cause at least one of;

a position of each of said processed image feeds on the at least one monitor to change;

a zoom into at least one of said processed image feeds;

a recording of at least one of said processed image feeds;

a freezing of at least one of said processed image feeds;

a highlighting of one of said processed image feeds;

or

a superimposing of a navigation indicator on at least one of said processed image feeds; and

wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system concurrently causes a zoom into only two of said processed image feeds.

2. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein the display system comprises three separate monitors positioned in a serial horizontal sequence, each of said three monitors displaying one of said processed image feeds with a first image feed being displayed on a central monitor, a second image feed being displayed on a left monitor, and a third image feed being displayed on a right monitor, and wherein, when said video processing command causes the position of each of said processed image feeds to change, positions of each image feed changes resulting in the second image feed being on the central monitor, the first image feed being on the right monitor, and the third image feed being on the left monitor.

3. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein the display system comprises three separate monitors positioned in a serial horizontal sequence, each of said three monitors displaying one of said processed image feeds with a first image feed being displayed on a central monitor, a second image feed being displayed on a left monitor, and a third image feed being displayed on a right monitor, and wherein, when said video processing command causes the position of each of said processed image feeds to change, positions of each image feed changes resulting in the third image feed being on the central monitor, the first image feed being on the left monitor, and the second image feed being on the right monitor.

4. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein the display system comprises only one monitor, said monitor displaying all three processed image feeds with a first image feed being centrally positioned on said monitor, a second image feed being on a right of said centrally positioned image feed, and a third image being on a left of said centrally positioned image feed, and wherein, when said video processing command causes the position of each of said processed image feeds to change, positions of each image feed changes resulting in the second image feed being centrally positioned, the first image feed being on the right, and the third image feed being on the left.

5. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein the display system comprises only one monitor, said monitor displaying all three processed image feeds with a first image feed being centrally positioned on said monitor, a second image feed being on a right of said centrally positioned image feed, and a third image being on a left of said centrally positioned image feed, and wherein, when said video processing command causes the position of each of said processed image feeds to change, positions of each image feed changes resulting in the third image feed being centrally positioned, the first image feed being on the left, and the second image feed being on the right.

6. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system causes a zoom into only one of said processed image feeds.

7. The endoscopy display system of claim 6 wherein the zoomed processed image feed is highlighted during zoom.

8. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system records only one of said processed image feeds.

9. The endoscopy display system of claim 8 wherein the recorded processed image feed is highlighted during recording.

10. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system freezes only one of said processed image feeds.

11. The endoscopy display system of claim 10 wherein the frozen processed image feed is highlighted during freezing.

12. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein both zoomed processed image feeds are highlighted during zoom.

13. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system concurrently records only two of said processed image feeds.

14. The endoscopy display system of claim 13 wherein the two recorded processed image feeds are highlighted during recording.

15. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system concurrently freezes only two of said processed image feeds.

16. The endoscopy display system of claim 15 wherein the two frozen processed image feeds are highlighted during freezing.

17. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system concurrently causes a zoom into each of said three processed image feeds.

18. The endoscopy display system of claim 17 wherein the three zoomed processed image feeds are highlighted during zoom.

19. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system concurrently records each of said three processed image feeds.

20. The endoscopy display system of claim 19 wherein the three recorded processed image feeds are highlighted during recording.

21. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein, in response to said video processing command, the video processing system concurrently freezes each of said three processed image feeds.

22. The endoscopy display system of claim 21 wherein the three frozen processed image feeds are highlighted during freezing.

23. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein the video processing system is adapted to generate, and transmit to said display system, a navigation path image that visually shows a position of, or progression of, at least a portion of the endoscope through an anatomical region based on time.

24. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein the video processing system is adapted to generate, and transmit to said display system, a timer which is a decrementing clock counting down from a pre-set amount of time.

25. The endoscopy display system of claim 1 wherein said video processing system is adapted to highlight, based upon a user'"'"'s input via said handle, one of said processed images.

26. The endoscopy display system of claim 25 wherein said video processing system is only enabled to process an image feed to cause a zoom into said processed image feed if said processed image feed is highlighted first.

27. The endoscopy display system of claim 25 wherein, if said video processing system has not highlighted a specific processed image, said video processing system is prevented from executing a predefined video processing command.

28. An endoscopy display system comprising:

an endoscope comprising a distal tip, wherein said distal tip has at least three image capturing components, and a handle, wherein said handle has at least one actuator that, when activated, generates a video processing command and wherein a first of the three image capturing components is located on a front face of the distal tip, a second of the three image capturing components is located on a first side of the distal tip, and a third of the three image capturing components is located on a second side, opposing said first side, of the distal tip;

a controller external to said endoscope, wherein said controller comprises a video processing system adapted to transmit commands to said three image capturing components and receive an image feed from each of said three image capturing components; and

a display system, wherein said display system comprises a left monitor, a central monitor, and a right monitor positioned in a serial horizontal sequence, each of said three separate monitors having a native aspect ratio associated thereto, wherein the native aspect ratio of said left and right monitors is modulated by no more than 30%, wherein an image feed from the first image capturing component is displayed on the central monitor, an image feed from the second image capturing component is displayed on the left monitor, and an image feed from the third image capturing component is displayed on the right monitor and wherein said video processing system is adapted to process each of said image feeds in accordance with the video processing command to cause at least one of;

a position of each of said processed image feeds on the at least one monitor to change;

a zoom into at least one of said processed image feeds;

a recording of at least one of said processed image feeds;

a freezing of at least one of said processed image feeds;

a highlighting of one of said processed image feeds;

or

a superimposing of a navigation indicator on at least one of said processed image feeds.

29. The endoscopy display system of claim 28 wherein the video processing system in combination with the display system skews the image feed from the second image capturing component toward a right side of the left monitor and skews the image feed from the third image capturing component toward a left side of the right monitor.

30. The endoscopy display system of claim 29 wherein the video processing system in combination with the display system are adapted to generate and display patient data separate and distinct from said image feed from the second image capturing component adjacent a left side of the left monitor or is adapted to generate and display patient data separate and distinct from said image feed from the third image capturing component adjacent a right side of the right monitor.

31. The endoscopy display system of claim 28 wherein the video processing system in combination with the display system aligns a top boundary of the image feed from the first image capturing component with a top boundary of the image feed from the second image capturing component with the image feed from the third image capturing component.

32. The endoscopy display system of claim 28 wherein the native aspect ratio is 4:

3 or 5;

4.

33. The endoscopy display system of claim 28 wherein the left, center, and right monitors are integrated into a unitary frame encasement.

34. The endoscopy display system of claim 28 wherein the center monitor defines a first plane, wherein the left monitor is positioned at a first angle relative to said first plane and the right monitor is positioned at a second angle relative to said first plane, and wherein said first angle and said second angle are in a range of 10 to 30 degrees.

35. The endoscopy display system of claim 28 wherein the video processing system in combination with the display system skews the image feed from the first image capturing component toward a bottom side of the center monitor, skews the image feed from the second image capturing component toward a bottom side of the left monitor, and skews the image feed from the third image capturing component toward a bottom side of the right monitor.

36. The endoscopy display system of claim 35 wherein the video processing system in combination with the display system are adapted to generate and display patient data separate and distinct from said image feed from the first image capturing component adjacent a top side of the center monitor, separate and distinct from said image feed from the second image capturing component adjacent a top side of the left monitor, and separate and distinct from said image feed from the third image capturing component adjacent a top side of the right monitor.

37. The endoscopy display system of claim 28 wherein the display system comprises a left monitor, a central monitor, and a right monitor positioned in a serial horizontal sequence, wherein an image feed from the first image capturing component, having a first field of view, is displayed on the central monitor, an image feed from the second image capturing component, having a second field of view, is displayed on the left monitor, and an image feed from the third image capturing component, having a third field of view, is displayed on the right monitor.

38. An endoscopy display system comprising:

an endoscope comprising a distal tip, wherein said distal tip has at least three image capturing components, and a handle, wherein said handle has at least one actuator that, when activated, generates a video processing command and wherein a first of the three image capturing components is located on a front face of the distal tip, a second of the three image capturing components is located on a first side of the distal tip, and a third of the three image capturing components is located on a second side, opposing said first side, of the distal tip;

a controller external to said endoscope, wherein said controller comprises a video processing system adapted to transmit commands to said three image capturing components and receive an image feed from each of said three image capturing components, wherein the video processing system combines an image feed from the first image capturing component, an image feed from the second image capturing component, and an image feed from the third image capturing component are integrated into a single, integrated image feed; and

a display system, wherein said display system comprises a left monitor, a center monitor, and a right monitor and wherein the single, integrated image feed is displayed across the left, center, and right monitors, wherein the single, integrated image feed that is displayed on the center monitor includes a first portion of a field of view of the second image capturing component, said first portion being in a range of 15 degrees to 30 degrees, and a second portion of a field of view of the third image capturing component, said second portion being in a range of 15 to 30 degrees, and wherein said video processing system is adapted to process each of said image feeds in accordance with the video processing command to cause at least one of;

a position of each of said processed image feeds on the at least one monitor to change;

a zoom into at least one of said processed image feeds;

a recording of at least one of said processed image feeds;

a freezing of at least one of said processed image feeds;

a highlighting of one of said processed image feeds;

or

a superimposing of a navigation indicator on at least one of said processed image feeds.

39. The endoscopy display system of claim 38 wherein the video processing system in combination with the display system generates and displays a black stripe at a boundary between the left monitor and center monitor and generates and displays a black stripe at a boundary between the right monitor and center monitor.

40. The endoscopy display system of claim 39 wherein the black stripe is no wider than six inches.

41. The endoscopy display system of claim 38 wherein the single, integrated image feed has a right portion, a left portion, and a center portion and wherein the video processing system skews the right portion and left portion of the single, integrated image feed relative to the center portion.

42. The endoscopy display system of claim 38 wherein, in combining said image feeds, the video processing system identifies overlaps in a field of view of the first image capturing component, a field of view of the second image capturing component, and a field of view of the third image capturing component and eliminates said overlaps to remove redundancies in said overlapping fields of view.