Computer vision based control of an energy generator
AssigneeCovidien LP
InventorsJing Zhao, Daniel A. Joseph, Christopher T. Brown
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrosurgical instrument includes a pair of jaws, an endoscope configured to capture image data of a surgical site including the electrosurgical instrument, and an energy generator coupled to the electrosurgical instrument. The energy generator is configured to generate an energy output to the electrosurgical instrument. The system also includes an endoscope controller which includes a processor and a memory. The memory includes instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the energy-based surgical system to determine, based on visual cue data, an opening angle of the pair of jaws.
Claims20
An electrosurgical system, comprising:
- an endoscope configured to capture at least one image of a surgical site, the at least one image including an electrosurgical instrument with an end effector having a pair of jaws;
- and
- an endoscope controller configured to extract visual cue data from the at least one image of the surgical site with the pair of jaws grasping tissue, the endoscope controller comprising:
- a processor;
- and
- a memory including instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by the processor, cause the electrosurgical system to:
- determine, based on the visual cue data, an opening angle of the pair of jaws;
- and
- determine, based on the opening angle, one or more tissue properties of the grasped tissue.
A computer-implemented method of operating an endoscope of an electrosurgical system, the method comprising:
- receiving, by an endoscope controller having a processor and a memory, at least one image of a surgical site including an electrosurgical instrument with an end effector having a pair of jaws;
- determining, by the endoscope controller, an opening angle of the pair of jaws based on the at least one image;
- and
- determining, by the endoscope controller, one or more tissue properties of tissue grasped by the pair of jaws based on the opening angle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.