Back to results
US 11,445,890 B2Granted
Modular endoscope
OwnerMarc A Levinsoninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A modular endoscope including a handle and sheath that may be coupled or uncoupled. The tip of the sheath distal from the location where it is coupled to the handle includes an illumination element, an image capture element and a deflection element, allowing the distal tip to be pointed in a selected direction.
Claims13
A modular endoscope comprising:
- a handle having an actuation lever and a coupling mechanism;
- a sheath having a coupling end and a tip end, wherein the coupling mechanism comprises a gear and a spline sleeve and locks the handle to the coupling end of the sheath and releasably joins the handle and the coupling end of the sheath;
- an illumination source configured to provide light projected from the tip end of the sheath;
- an image sensor mounted on the tip end of the sheath, configured to capture image data from in front of the tip end of the sheath;
- and
- an active tip deflecting mechanism including:
- a first pair of wires positioned through the sheath, wherein one end of each of the first pair of wires includes a first engaging portion and an opposite end of each of the first pair of wires is connected to the tip end;
- and
- a second pair of wires positioned through the handle, wherein one end of each of the second pair of wires includes a second engaging portion and an opposite end of each of the second pair of wires is connected to the actuation lever,
- wherein each one of the first engaging portions connects to one of the second engaging portions thereby allowing the tip deflecting mechanism to extend from the actuation lever of the handle to the tip end of the sheath to allow angular deflection of the tip end of the sheath using the actuation lever at the handle.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.