ENDOSCOPE WITH ROTATABLE CAMERA AND RELATED METHOD

• Main Authors: STEVEN L HENNING, PAUL L ADAMS, GREGG W RIVINIUS, TIMOTHY D MOREAU, DAVID BLUMBERG JR, ALEC W KULBACKI, JOSHUA FILGATE
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Japanese
• Published: 05.03.2024
• Subjects: DIAGNOSIS; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; IDENTIFICATION; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS, OR APPARATUS; OPTICS; PHYSICS; SURGERY

To provide an endoscope device which operates by being visually recognized in a space difficult to access.SOLUTION: An endoscope 10 comprises a handle 12 and a shaft 14 with an optical housing at the distal end of the shaft enclosing a camera sensor positioned so that its optical axis is at an angle with respect to a rotational axis of the shaft. The camera sensor is rotatable with the shaft relative to a proximal housing of the handle. A rotation sensor in the handle detects the rotational angle of the camera sensor with respect to the proximal housing. A processor corrects the angular orientation of an image from the image sensor, by converting a rotating variation of a field of view to a parallel movement variation. The processor can apply variable smoothing to the rotation of the displayed image so that smoothing during rotational deceleration is greater than smoothing during rotational acceleration. The shaft may be enclosed in a trocar that allows for a space between the shaft and trocar to carry irrigation fluid to or from a space at the end of the shaft.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3A 【課題】アクセスしにくい空間で視認し作動する内視鏡器具を提供する、【解決手段】内視鏡１０は、ハンドル１２と、先端に光学ハウジングを有するシャフト１４を備え、光軸がシャフト回転軸にある角度となるカメラセンサを取り囲む。カメラセンサは、ハンドルの基部ハウジングに対して、シャフトと一緒に回転する。ハンドルの回転センサがカメラセンサの基部ハウジングに対する回転角を検知する。プロセッサは、視野の回転変化を平行移動変化に変換して、画像センサからの画像の角度方向を修正する。プロセッサは、表示画像の回転に可変平滑化を適用し、回転減速時の平滑化は回転加速時より大きい。シャフトは、トロカールに取り囲まれ、シャフトとトロカールの間の空間が、洗浄液をシャフト末端の空間へあるいは空間から運べるようにする。【選択図】図３Ａ