Wireless Endoscope Camera
in the visionary perspective of
Nano-Tera Complex Engineered Systems
Source: Bilan [pdf] n#244, February-March 2008, "INNOVATION: Le high-tech de demain est helvétique" |
 Source: Millenium Research Group, Medical Industry Intelligence, January-February 2005, Volume 1, Issue 1 |
The Wireless Endoscope Camera market is growing at a tremendous pace, having similar impacts at system and hardware level. Given Imaging came out with the first FDA approved product. Since that time Olympus Corp and RF System Lab of Japan have brought out rival products. Now large companies are having their interest growing for the promising big business. They are hence getting more and more involved too. This includes players like Fujinon, Siemens and Phillips (see section on Patent Scout).
Table of Content
Introduction
Participation: "Top-Down Bottom-Up"
Existing Products
General Information
Patent Scout
Given Imaging
Fujinon
Olympus
Pentax
Philips Electronics
Siemens
Present and Future Fields of Potential Interest
Sensors and physiological parameters
Imaging
Positioning location and motion control
Data processing and transmission
Power supply and energy harvesting
Low power electronics and energy scavenging
Targeted localized medication, drug release, light, ultrasound
Targeted localized surgery
Introduction
After the kick off event of the Nano-Tera program on January 29th, the journalist Stéphane Zindel and his team from the journal BILAN came up with an artist vision for representing their understanding of a an application example of this program to be communicated to a broader public. This artist vision is a flashback to the 1966 film Le Voyage Fantastique illustrating a fleet of microcapsules embarking a plethora of complex micro-nano devices and electronics that are to operate in the human body for gathering and processing Tera amounts of data to be remotely transferred to the outside world.
Since the release of 'The Voyage Fantastique' a lot of fiction has since moved to science with present real application such as Wireless Capsule Endoscopy enabling the diagnosis of health condition of the gastro intestinal mucosa. Present science and further developments connected to such present complex engineered systems is to enable many more valuable applications with ambitious future health monitoring, vitamin e diagnosis, biopsy, localized targeted drug delivery, healing and eventually surgery such as laser based or else.
Beyond these most interesting individual functionalities, further interest is also to be recognized in this graphic design which is representing a fleet of nano-camera. Such a fleet builds a networked of distributed sensors. This visionary information gathering concept inside a body is in line with many presently addressed research and development projects challenging the synergies of the micro-nano hardware with the information-communication worlds that are to lead to highly complex engineered systems. One existing research program example that has been identified in this area is the European FP6 "e-cubes" program which likely benefited to some extend from former projects like the "e-grain" that terminated in 2005 and the "smart dust" project in the US that terminated already in 2001. The latter project also led to further new projects such as: Wireless Embedded Systems, NEST Project, Center For Embedded Network Sensing.
From "Wireless Endoscope Capsules" to "E-Cubes", "Smart Dusts" and the like
"M2A" is the first product trademark for a "Wireless Endoscope Capsule" from Given Imaging
"Smart Dust" is a term originally coined by Kris Pister, a Professor at UC Berkeley and founder and CTO of Dust Networks
For the first applications examples from "Smart dusts": here
Participation: "Top-Down Bottom-Up"
While particularly encouraged within the Swiss community, the present web platform has no geographical limitations and is opened to all outside-in reflections and ideas. To have a topic selected on this web platform, it has to be submitted via a graphical illustration as in the present case, preferably a visionary one. The best graphical illustrations will be selected and undergo a preliminary survey analysis by the Nano-Tera Management Office to trigger input and further exchanges about competitive understanding and shared interests. These are then posted on the Nano-Tera Top-Down Bottom-Up web platform for further input and participation.
We strongly encourage projects that are financed by Nano-Tera to take part and expose themselves to this ?Top-Down Bottom-Up? open source information sharing in order to have projects gain in exposure and knowledge from valuable outside-in input and critics. The latter can be from the industry, academia or general public.
On critical issues, strategic players or individuals have the possibility to directly contact the management office via a MP or the Executive Director at peter.bradley@nano-tera.ch.
Existing Products
A set of existing products are examined in this Wiki:
| M2A, PillCam | Given Imaging | Israel |
| EndoCapsule | Olympus Corp | Japan |
| Sayaka and Norika3 | RF System Lab | Japan |
| MiroCam | IntroMedic | Korea |
| OMOM | Jinshan Science & Technology | China |
| MTS1 | Motilis | Switzerland |
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General Information
Wireless Capsule Endoscopy is a term used to describe a miniature capsule used to record images through the digestive tract for use in medicine. The capsule is a camera with the size and shape of a pill used to visualize the gastrointestinal tract. The procedure was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001. It is an imaging device for the detection of gastrointestinal diseases.
Capsule endoscopy is used as a less-invasive procedure in placement of a traditional endoscope, which is a long, thin tube inserted into the rectum and transversed through the colon or into the oral cavity. The technology is used by gastroenterologists to detect diseases such as Crohn's disease, gastric ulcers, and colon cancer. At the present time, the capsule camera is primarily used to visualize the small intestine. Whereas the upper gastrointestinal tract (esophagus, stomach, and duodenum) and the colon (large intestine) can be very adequately visualized with scopes (cameras placed at the ends of thin flexible tubes), the small intestine is very long (average 20-25 feet) and very convoluted. No available scope is able to traverse the entire length of the small intestine. Because the capsule is swallowed and travels through the digestive system, capsule endoscopy takes a longer amount of time than traditional endoscopy. The images are of good quality, comparable to those from scopes. The test carries a high sensitivity and specificity for detecting lesions. Early research has shown that capsule endoscopy can detect evidence of disease in some cases that traditional endoscopy cannot.
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Patent Scout
EP1779777, published 2007, Gavriel Iddan et al.
Title: "A device and system for in vivo imaging"
Fujinon
Olympus
WO2008065839 ? published 2008, Kazuaki Tamura et al.
Title: "Capsule type endoscope"US2008125627 ? published 2008, Hitoshi Mizumo et al.
Title: "Method of controlling a capsule type endoscope based on detection position"Pentax
JP2008043466, published 2008, Taro Nakasendo et al.
Title: "Capsule endoscope, capsule endoscope cover, capsule endoscope processor and capsule endoscope posture detection system"Capsule endoscope formed with a transparent and a hermetically closed space filled with a colorless transparent liquid in which a float and a weight are installed moving freely and building an azimuth magnet for posture detection.
Philips Electronics
WO2008012701 ? published 2008, Bernardus Hendrikus et al.
Title: "Capsule camera with variable illumination of the surrounding tissue"method for in vivo imaging and/or treatment of one or more diseased areas of interest within the gastrointestinal tract of an animal or human being. The capsule comprises an image sensor; a lens system for focusing images onto the image sensor; at least one light source for illumination of the tissue area of interest, the at least one light source optionally being capable of providing optical therapeutic treatment to the diseased areas...
Siemens
DE102005032370, published 2007, Rainer Kuth et al.
Method for determining the position and orientation of an endoscope capsule guided through an investigation object comprises recording images using an X-ray device and determining the position and orientation of the capsule based on the images.US2006281971 ? published 2006, Frank Sauer et al.
Method and apparatus for minimally invasive surgery using endoscopes where miniaturized medical instrument e.g. for endoscope, has housing in which gyroscope is arranged and instrument is designed as endoscope or endorobot.Present and future fields of potential interest
Sensors and physiological parameters
Imaging
Positioning location and motion control
See also patent scout under: Siemens
News: June 2008: "Magnet-controlled camera in the body", NEMO EU project
With this recently disclosed implementation of positioning control via a magnetic control successfully developed by a team at the for Biomedical Engineering under the heads of Frank VOLKE.
Le Monde: Voyage dans le corps humain : on y vient !
Article publié le 22 Juin 2008 par "Le Monde""On peut imaginer des capsules qui iront délivrer des médicaments ou faire des prélèvements automatiques. Et si un jour on invente une batterie d'une autonomie de vingt-cinq heures, on pourra alors tout envisager", précise le professeur Gerard Gay du service de gastro-entérologie du CHU de Nancy. This medical Professor is underlining the enormous opportunities bound to progresses related to - energy challenges.
Jusqu'à voyager dans tout le corps humain ? Peut-être pas. "Imaginez les dégàts que ferait une caméra, même miniaturisée, dans nos bronches ou nos poumons !" Au-delà des avancées techniques nécessaires, de nombreux obstacles médicaux - risques d'embolies, d'infections par exemple - devront être franchis avant que cette étape soit sérieusement envisageable. Et de longues années de recherches attendent les scientifiques avant de réussir à infiltrer le coeur ou le cerveau d'un patient. Mais selon le docteur Volke, "rien n'est à exclure. Car personne ne sait aujourd'hui ce que les nanotechnologies rendront possible demain". vital greens Melbourne
Modular Self-Assembling Robots Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems,
from Prof. Bradley Nelson, Head IRIS GROUPE/ETHZ, also Active in Nano-Tera.ch/CABTURES and Nano-Tera.ch/SELFSYSThere is a clear trend toward the miniaturization of medical devices for minimally invasive medical procedures, ranging from diagnosis and targeted drug delivery to complex surgical interventions and alternative therapies. [...]This work addresses a fundamental challenge that must be be met for the success of such swallowable modular robots - their self-assembly. [More...]
Data processing and transmission
News:June 25th 2008 "Software for flexibly programming a tiered network of sensors"
Power supply and energy harvesting
Low power electronics and energy scavenging
Targeted localized medication, drug release, light, ultrasound
See patent scout: PhilipsTargeted localized surgery
Online information about WirelessEndoscopeCamera:
Suitable for medical practitioners and patent-makers, those who have who have to write about medical breakthroughs.Wireless endoscopic camera on Freshpatents.com - A system and method for wirelessly transmitting a video image signal from an endoscopic camera to a receiver or control unit for storage and/or display on a video monitor.
US Patent 7030904 - Reduced area imaging device incorporated within wireless endoscopic devices - A reduced area imaging device is provided for use in medical or dental instruments such as an endoscope. In a first embodiment of the endoscope, connections between imaging device elements and between a video display is achieved by hard-wired connections.
See Also:
Nano-Tera Top-Down Bottom-Up
Body Health Monitoring
NanoTeraWiki HomePage
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