A Panoramic Wireless Endoscope System Design for the Application of Minimally Invasive Surgery
Chun-Hsiang Peng, Ching-Hwa Cheng · Smart Science · 2014
Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) is the current trend in surgery. Compared to traditional surgery, MIS can substantially decrease recovery time and expenses needed by patients after surgeries, reduce pain during surgical procedures, and is highly regarded by physicians and patients. An endoscope is widely used in the diagnosis and treatments of various medical disciplines, such as hysteroscopy, laparoscopy, and colonoscopy, and have been adopted by many branches of medicine. However, the limited image field of MIS is often the most difficult obstacles faced by surgeons and medical students, especially to less experienced physicians and difficult surgical procedures; the limited field of view of endoscopic imaging does not provide a whole picture of the surgery area, making the procedures difficult and full of uncertainty. In light of this problem, we proposed a “Panoramic Wireless Endoscope System design”, hoping to provide physicians with a wide field of view of the endoscopic image. We combine images captured from two parallel-mounted endoscope lenses into a single, wide-angle image, giving physicians a wider field of view and easier access to the surgical area. In addition, we developed a wireless transmission system so the image can be transmitted to various display platforms, eliminating the needs for excessive cabling on surgical tools and enable physicians to better operate on the patient. Finally, our system allows surgical assistants a better view of the operation process, and enables other physicians and nurses to remotely observe the process. Our experiment results have shown that we can increase the image to 152% of its original size. We used the PandaBoard ES platform with an ARM9 processor and 1G of onboard RAM, and continuously implementing animal trials to verify the reliability of our system.