Patent ID: 11896441
Assignee: INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A

Claim 10:
11. The measurement system of claim 1, wherein the at least one physical computing device determines the distance from the 3D endpoint to the additional 3D endpoint by:
automatically identifying one or more 3D midpoints on a 3D contour that connects the 3D endpoint to the additional 3D endpoint and that runs along a physical surface upon which the 3D endpoint and the additional 3D endpoint are both disposed;
determining, based on the one or more 3D midpoints, intermediate distances for each segment of a linearly-segmented route from the 3D endpoint to the additional 3D endpoint that passes through each adjacent 3D midpoint so as to substantially adhere to the 3D contour between the 3D endpoint and the additional 3D endpoint; and
determining the distance to be a contoured distance from the 3D endpoint to the additional 3D endpoint computed as a sum of the intermediate distances.