Systems and methods for minimally invasive procedures include a computer-assisted system comprising a manipulator assembly configured to couple to a cannula and a controller coupled to the manipulator assembly. The cannula has a lumen configured to receive a shaft of an instrument. The controller is configured to position a remote center of motion for the manipulator assembly at a first location relative to the cannula, and in response to an indication to reposition the remote center of motion relative to the cannula, reposition the remote center of motion to a second location relative to the cannula while constraining the second location to be located along the cannula. The second location is different from the first location.

An apparatus for heat dissipation is provided comprising a heat source, a heat sink and a heat conducting element, wherein the heat conducting element conducts heat energy from the heat source to the heat sink along a heat conducting path, and wherein the heat conducting element is arranged in such a way on the heat source and the heat sink and is configured to physically change in such a way with increasing temperature of the heat conducting element that a) a first cross-sectional area between the heat source and the heat conducting element and/or a second cross-sectional area between the heat conducting element of the heat sink increases, and/or b) a length of the heat conducting path shortens. Further, a video endoscope having such an apparatus and a use of such an apparatus are disclosed.

Techniques for retracting an instrument into an entry guide include receiving a retraction command for the instrument, the retraction command commanding movement of the instrument into the entry guide; causing, in response to the retraction command and using an instrument manipulator, movement of a rotational joint of the instrument that is external to the entry guide toward a distal end of the entry guide; actuating, after the rotational joint reaches a minimum distance from the distal end of the entry guide, the rotational joint to orient a link of the instrument so that the link can be retracted into the entry guide, the link being adjacent to and distal to the rotational joint; and causing, after the link is oriented so that the link can be retracted into the entry guide and using the instrument manipulator, further movement of the rotational joint toward the distal end of the entry guide.

A controller controls a movement of an endoscope to cause the endoscope to follow a surgical instrument. The controller includes a processor. The processor acquires position information including the position of the surgical instrument, acquires scene information associated with a procedure scene to be observed through the endoscope, determines an offset parameter, which determines the position of the target point with respect to a predetermined fiducial point in the field of view of the endoscope, of a target point on the basis of the scene information, sets the position of the target point with respect to the fiducial point on the basis of the offset parameter, and causes the endoscope to follow the surgical instrument such that the surgical instrument is disposed at the target point, by controlling a movement of the endoscope on the basis of the position of the target point and the position of the surgical instrument.

A method for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) employs dual event-based cameras. Event streams from the cameras are processed by an image processing system to stereoscopically detect surface points in an environment, dynamically compute pose of a camera as it moves, and concurrently update a map of the environment. A gradient descent based optimization may be utilized to update the pose for each event or for each small batch of events.

[Object] To improve work efficiency with respect to work using a transparent object, such as a transparent operation tool, for example. [Solution] An image region where an object exists as a target region is detected on the basis of a second captured image, when a first captured image is a captured image obtained by selectively receiving a light of a first wavelength band, and the second captured image is a captured image obtained by selectively receiving a light of a second wavelength band, the captured images being obtained by capturing the object that is transparent for the light of the first wavelength band and is opaque for the light of the second wavelength band. Subsequently, an outline of the object is superimposed on the first captured image on the basis of information of the target region detected by the target detecting unit.

A medical imaging device configured to spatially resolve recording of multispectral video data of an examination area of a patient including a light source having multiple optical emitters with different wavelengths in the visible and NIR spectral range. The light source has an emitter whose wavelength lies in the range of ±50% of its half-width around the intersection of the blue and green filter curves or the green and red filter curves, and the exposure control and the data processing means are arranged to separately detect the affected two of the red and green or the green and blue colour signals in an exposure pattern with activation of the emitter at the intersection point and to evaluate them in the multispectral analysis with mutually different wavelengths shifted by the two affected filter curves as two supporting point wavelengths.

In one embodiment of the invention, a a minimally invasive surgical system is disclosed. The system configured to capture and display camera images of a surgical site on at least one display device at a surgeon console; switch out of a following mode and into a masters-as-mice (MaM) mode; overlay a graphical user interface (GUI) including an interactive graphical object onto the camera images; and render a pointer within the camera images for user interactive control. In the following mode, the input devices of the surgeon console may couple motion into surgical instruments. In the MaM mode, the input devices interact with the GUI and interactive graphical objects. The pointer is manipulated in three dimensions by input devices having at least three degrees of freedom. Interactive graphical objects are related to physical objects in the surgical site or a function thereof and are manipulatable by the input devices.

A novel dual-path-endoscope where a multi-function light source produces a first-light and a second-light toward an object. The first-light exhibits first-light-characteristics. The second-light exhibits second-light-characteristics different from the first-light-characteristics. The endoscope includes two light-paths, the disparity there between is larger than zero. Each light-path includes a respective pupil and a respective light-separator coupled with the pupil, transmitting there through one of the first-light and the second-light, associating the first-light and the second-light with a respective light-path. The dual-channel-imager includes two imaging sensors, each associated with a respective light-path and optically coupled with a respective light-separator. Each imaging-sensor exhibits sensitivity to the characteristics of the respective one of the first-light and the second-light. A first imaging-sensor acquires a first-image of the first-light reflected of the object and a second imaging-sensor acquires a second-image of the second-light reflected of the object. The processor processes the acquired images.

A polarization-based colposcopy apparatus includes a polarization exchanging beam splitter pair oriented so that s- and p-polarizations are exchanged. An optical flux from a specimen is directed through the pair, and orthogonal components thereof are alternately or selectively coupled to an array detector. The detected images are processed based on image correlations to reveal specimen structures.