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EP-4734811-A1 - SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR OPERATING A LIGHT SOURCE FOR AN ENDOSCOPE

EP4734811A1EP 4734811 A1EP4734811 A1EP 4734811A1EP-4734811-A1

Abstract

The invention provides a system (100) for operating a light source for an endoscope, a method for operating such a light source, and a method for training an artificial neural network. The system (100) comprises: a light source (10); an analysis module (31) configured to receive at least one image from a camera unit (21) of the endoscope (20) and to make a determination, based thereon, whether the endoscope (20) is currently inserted into a patient's body (1) or not; and a lighting control module (32) configured to control the light source (10) based on the determination of the analysis module (32).

Inventors

  • ALWANNI, Hisham
  • Haag, Simon
  • Keuser, Jasmin

Assignees

  • Karl Storz SE & Co. KG

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20240624

Claims (10)

  1. 1. A system (100) for operating a light source (10) for an endoscope (20), comprising: a light source (10); an analysis module (31) configured to receive at least one image (71) from a camera unit (21) of the endoscope (20) and to make a determination (S200), based thereon, whether the endoscope (20) is currently inserted into a patient’s body (1) or not; and a lighting control module (32) configured to control the light source (10) based on the determination of the analysis module (31).
  2. 2. The system (100) of claim 1 , wherein the lighting control module (32) is configured to control the light source (10) to be in a first, inside mode (IM) when the determination (S200) indicates that the endoscope (20) is currently inserted into the patient’s body (1), and to be in a second, outside mode (OM) when the determination (S200) indicates that the endoscope (20) is currently not inserted into the patient’s body (1).
  3. 3. The system (100) of claim 2, wherein the light source (10) is configured to emit, in the inside mode (IM), light (2) according to an automatic control algorithm, according to which a output power of the emitted light (2) is automatically adapted based on light incident on the camera unit (21).
  4. 4. The system (100) of claim 2 or 3, wherein the light source (10) is configured to emit, in the outside mode (OM), light (2) with a constant output power, in particular an output power smaller than a maximum output power of the light source (10).
  5. 5. The system (100) of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the analysis module (31) is configured to implement an artificial neural network (131), in particular a convolutional neural network, configured and trained to differentiate between sceneries inside and outside of the human body, and to make the determination (S200) based thereon.
  6. 6. The system (100) of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the analysis module (31) is configured to receive a video stream from the camera unit (21), and the determination (S200) at any time point is made based on one or more of the N most recent frames of the video stream, N < 100, preferably N<10, most preferably N=1.
  7. 7. The system (100) of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein an image output of the camera unit (21) has a first resolution, and wherein the analysis module (31) is configured to make the determination (S200) based on scaled-down images having a second resolution lower than the first resolution.
  8. 8. The system (100) of any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the system (100) comprises a camera control unit (30) configured to control and/or process an image acquisition by the camera unit (21) and the analysis module (31) is integrated into the camera control unit (30), or wherein the analysis module (31) is integrated into the light source (10).
  9. 9. A computer-implemented method of training an artificial neural network according to claim 5, comprising: providing (S10) training images comprising images showing sceneries within a human body and images showing sceneries outside of a human body, wherein the training images are labelled accordingly; and training (S20) an artificial neural network (131) with the training images using supervised learning.
  10. 10. A computer-implemented method for operating a light source for an endoscope, comprising: acquiring (S100) at least one image (71) using a camera unit (21) of an endoscope (20); making a determination (S200), based on the at least one image (71), whether the endoscope (20) is currently inserted into a patient’s (1) body or not; and controlling (S300) the light source (10) of the endoscope (20) based on the made determination (S200).

Description

System and Method for operating a light source for an endoscope Technical field of the invention The present invention relates to endoscopy and provides a system and a method for operating a light source for an endoscope, wherein the light source is put into different light emission modes depending on whether or not the endoscope is currently positioned within a patient’s body or outside of it. Background of the invention Endoscopes are coupled with light sources to be able to emit light when introduced into a patient’s body, for example during a laparoscopy or thoracoscopy. The output power of the light sources is conventionally adaptively controlled so that the amount of light is enough for the physician to evaluate the scenery via an external display. Typically, light incident onto the endoscope is detected by a sensor, and based thereon, the light output power is maintained, increased, or decreased. This may lead to an issue when the endoscope is retrieved from the patient’s body: at the instant when said sensor exits the body, the amount of incident light detected by the sensor sharply drops. In the conventional systems, this leads to a sudden increase in the output power of the light, which may be irritating or in some instances even harmful to the patient or medical personal surrounding the patient. Summary of the invention The above-described problems are solved by the subject-matter of the independent claims of the present invention. According to a first aspect, the invention provides a system for operating a light source for an endoscope, comprising: a light source; an analysis module configured to receive at least one image from a camera unit of the endoscope and to make a determination, based thereon, whether the endoscope is currently inserted into a patient’s body or not; and a lighting control module configured to control the light source based on the determination of the analysis module. One main idea of the present invention is that, depending on whether the endoscope is inside or outside of a patient’s body, different modes of controlling the light source are advantageous, as opposed to the light source being always in the same mode according to the conventional wisdom in the prior art. Moreover, it has been found by the inventors that the images from the camera unit of the endoscope itself are well suited to be the basis for this determination of the best mode for each situation. The system may also include the endoscope itself, the endoscope comprising the camera unit and a light emitter for emitting light generated by the light source. The system may further comprise additional elements such as a display for displaying the images acquired by the camera unit and the like. The determination about whether the endoscope is currently inserted into a patient’s body or not will sometimes also be designated as the “IN/OIIT determination” herein for the sake of brevity. Although here, in the foregoing and in the following, some functions are described as being performed by modules, it shall be understood that this does not necessarily mean that such modules are provided as entities separate from one another. In cases where one or more modules are provided as software, the modules may be implemented by program code sections or program code snippets, which may be distinct from one another but which, may also be interwoven. Similarly, in case where one or more modules are provided as hardware, the functions of one or more modules may be provided by one and the same hardware component, or the functions of one module or the functions of several modules may be distributed over several hardware components which need not necessarily correspond to the modules one-to-one. Thus, any apparatus, system, method and so on which exhibits all of the features and functions ascribed to a specific module shall be understood to comprise, or implement, said module. In particular, it is a possibility that all modules are implemented by program code executed by a computing device (or: computer), e.g. a server or a cloud computing platform. The computing device may be realized as any device, or any means, for computing, in particular for executing a software, an app, or an algorithm. For example, the computing device may comprise at least one processing unit such as at least one central processing unit, CPU, and/or at least one graphics processing unit, GPU, and/or at least one field-programmable gate array, FPGA, and/or at least one application-specific integrated circuit, ASIC and/or any combination of the foregoing. The computing device may further comprise a working memory operatively connected to the at least one processing unit and/or a non-transitory memory operatively connected to the at least one processing unit and/or the working memory. The computing device may be implemented partially and/or completely in a local apparatus and/or partially and/or completely in a remote system such as by a cloud computing