Patent ID: 11871902
Assignee: CLEARCAM, INC.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC A  G  H | IPC A  G  H

Claim 10:
11. A robotic surgical system, comprising:
an imaging apparatus including an imaging device and a cleaning device, wherein the imaging device comprises an imaging element for acquiring image information from a surgical field within a body cavity during a surgical procedure and wherein the cleaning device is adapted to clean a surface of the imaging element in response to activation thereof while the imaging element is within the body cavity; and
a control console including a visual display device adapted to have the image information displayed thereon;
a processing unit coupled to the imaging apparatus and the control console, wherein the processing unit comprises one or more processors configured to:
process a portion of the image information to determine when the imaging element exhibits unacceptable cleanliness;
in response to a determination that the imaging element exhibits unacceptable cleanliness, cause one or more responsive actions to be performed by at least one of the cleaning device and the imaging apparatus controller, wherein each of said responsive actions at least one of cause the cleaning device to clean the imaging element through use of at least one of the cleaning device and the visual display device and enable the cleaning device to clean the imaging element through use of at least one of the cleaning device and the visual display device;
enable a user to select one or more visual clarity reference images exhibiting acceptable visual clarity; and
the one or more processors being configured to process a portion of the image information includes the one or more processors being configured to use said selected visual clarity reference images to determine when the imaging element exhibits unacceptable cleanliness for the user; wherein:
the portion of the image information includes an image of the anatomical structure within the body cavity;
the one or more processors being configured to process the portion of the image information includes the one or more processors being configured to correlate the image to one or more visual clarity scored reference images each having a respective visual clarity determined to be visually equivalent to the image; and
each of said scored reference images has a score one of rating cleanliness of an imaging element used for acquiring a respective one of said reference images and ranking cleanliness of an imaging element used for acquiring a respective one of said reference images.