Fiber optic lens cleaning by gas flow and/or vibrations
AssigneeGE Precision Healthcare LLC
InventorsPaul Krueger, Jiaqi Li, Robert Nevermann, Dixin Mi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for an automatic lens cleaning system incorporated into a system. The system includes an imaging device, a reversibly coupled table configured to reversibly couple to the imaging device, a communication interface including a first lens of the imaging device and a second lens of the reversibly coupled table, and the automatic lens cleaning system. The automatic lens cleaning system includes a bellow positioned at a coupling interface between the imaging device and the reversibly coupled table, and at least one nozzle fluidly coupled to the bellow and configured to direct a flow of gas towards at least one of the first lens or the second lens.
Claims19
A system, comprising:
- an imaging device;
- a reversibly coupled table, configured to reversibly couple to the imaging device;
- a communication interface comprising a first lens of the imaging device and a second lens of the reversibly coupled table;
- and
- an automatic lens cleaning assembly comprising a bellows positioned at a coupling interface between the imaging device and the reversibly coupled table and at least one nozzle fluidly connected the bellows, where the at least one nozzle is configured to direct a flow of gas towards at least one of the first lens or the second lens, wherein the flow of gas is caused by compression of the bellows between the imaging device and the reversibly coupled table.
A docking system, comprising:
- a first component including a first lens;
- a second component including a second lens, wherein the first lens and second lens are configured to communicatively couple the first component to the second component when the docking system is in a coupled state;
- an automatic lens cleaning system configured to automatically remove contaminants from a surface of the first lens and second lens in response to the docking system transitioning from a decoupled state to the coupled state by gas flow and/or vibrations;
- and
- a controller including instructions stored on non-volatile memory, the instructions executable to:
- activate the automatic lens cleaning system in response to the first component beginning to dock with the second component.
A method, comprising:
- determining if a reversibly coupled table is beginning to dock to an imaging device;
- in response to the reversibly coupled table beginning to dock to the imaging device, activating an automatic lens cleaning system, wherein the automatic lens cleaning system removes contaminants from a lens of the reversibly coupled table and from a lens of the imaging device using gas flow and/or vibrations;
- and
- in response to the reversibly coupled table not beginning to dock, waiting for table docking to begin.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.