PROVIDING INFORMATION OF TOOLS BY FILTERING IMAGE AREAS ADJACENT TO OR ON DISPLAYED IMAGES OF THE TOOLS

• US 20140232824A1
• Filed: 02/15/2013
• Published: 08/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc. (Intuitive Surgical Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intuitive Surgical Operations, Inc. (Intuitive Surgical Holdings, LLC)
• Inventors: DiMaio, Simon P., Hoffman, Brian D., Itkowitz, Brandon D., Mohr, Paul W., Robinson, David W., Zhao, Tao, Zhao, Wenyi
• Granted Patent: US 10,507,066 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/45
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/30 Surgical robots
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/37 Master-slave robots A61B34/35 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 90/361 Image-producing devices, e.g. surgical cameras

Abstract

An operator telerobotically controls tools to perform a procedure on an object at a work site while viewing real-time images of the object, tools and work site on a display. Tool information is provided by filtering a part of the real-time images for enhancement or degradation to indicate a state of a tool and displaying the filtered images on the display.

Claims

1. A robotic system comprising:

a tool;

an image capturing device disposed to capture an image of a work site;

a display; and

a processor configured to filter part, but not all of the image of the work site to indicate that the tool is energized; and

cause the image of the work site with the filtered part to be displayed on the display.

2. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to filter the part of the image of the work site by:

enhancing a portion of the image of an object at the work site, wherein the portion is adjacent to the tool that is being energized at the time.

3. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to filter the part of the image of the work site by:

degrading all but a portion of the image of an object at the work site, wherein the portion is adjacent to the tool that is being energized at the time.

4. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to filter the part of the image of the work site by:

filtering an image of the working end of the tool being energized at the time so as to create one of a glowing and aura effect.

5. The robotic system of claim 1, wherein the image capturing device comprises a stereo camera, wherein the display is a stereo viewer, and wherein the image of the work site is a three-dimensional image of the work site.

6. A method for providing tool information on a display, the method comprising:

capturing an image of a work site;

filtering part, but not all of the image of the work site to indicate that a tool at the work site is energized; and

displaying the image of the work site with the filtered part on a display.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the filtering of the part of the image of the work site comprises:

enhancing at least a portion of the image of an object at the work site, wherein the portion is adjacent to the tool that is energized at the time.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the filtering of the part of the image of the work site comprises:

degrading all but a portion of the image of an object at the work site, wherein the portion is adjacent to the tool that is energized at the time.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the filtering of the part of the image of the work site comprises:

filtering an image of the working end of the tool being energized at the time to create one of a glowing and aura effect.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the capturing of the image of the work site is performed using a stereo camera, wherein the display is a stereo viewer, and wherein the image of the work site is a three-dimensional image of the work site.