Interface device between a user and a surgical or dental instrument

Portable human-machine interface device intended to be removably connected to a controller (2) of at least one surgical or dental instrument (4), the controller (2) being installed in a power and control unit (6) or a table top equipment (8), the interface device (1) including hardware and software means allowing a user to enter an instruction or data into the interface device (1) to control, via the controller (2), the operation of the surgical or dental instrument (4).

This is a National Phase Application in the United States of International Patent Application PCT/EP 2011/057461 filed May 10, 2011, which claims priority on European Patent Application No. 10162731.3. The entire disclosures of the above patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns an interface device between a user and a surgical or dental instrument. More specifically, the invention concerns a removable and versatile interface device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The dental surgery environment has considerably changed in the last few years. In order to provide patients with increasingly complete services in comforting and modern surroundings, practitioners invest in more and more sophisticated equipment. Moreover, faced with the endlessly increasing diversity of clinical treatments (restoration, endodontics, prophylaxis, orthodontics, implants, etc.) offered by practitioners, the necessary number of instruments has considerably increased.

However, the work space of the practitioner is limited. All the instruments necessary for the treatment must be grouped around the patient seated in the chair and they must remain within the practitioner's reach. Further, the instruments must be able to be changed quickly during treatment and between two successive patients. Likewise, the instruments must be able to be used simply and in conditions of impeccable hygiene to reduce as far as possible any risk of error in handling or of contamination.

To satisfy these new requirements, each medical equipment manufacturer provides its own response attempting to distinguish itself from the competitors. To achieve this, manufacturers create work environments which differ from those of competitors as regards both hardware and software. Manufacturers will, for example, offer a user interface with a new graphical presentation, a touch screen or the possibility of choosing the language of use.

Faced with such an abundance of supply, practitioners are often unable to become sufficiently familiar with the work environment peculiar to each manufacturer to be able to use the numerous pieces of equipment available in an intuitive manner, which may lead to risks both for practitioners and their patients.

To overcome these problems, the tendency seen for several years has been to group together the largest possible number of instruments within the same power and control unit (commonly called a “unit”) so that the user interface of the unit can be used to control all of the instruments. However, the control means of the unit does not always have the flexibility necessary for all the functions of the instruments to be used. Moreover, practitioners often wish to fit additional instruments to their unit sometimes long after the unit has been purchased. In this case too, the facility of use and versatility of the user interface fitted to the unit are key factors in the successful and risk-free integration of new instruments in the unit.

In some cases, however, it is not possible to modernise the unit and the practitioner has to purchase table top equipment in addition to the instruments integrated in the dental unit. The number of user interfaces that the practitioner has to manage therefore has a tendency to increase, which may constitute a risk for the practitioner or the patient, or at least a lack of efficiency.

Further, nowadays an increasing number of dental clinics are being set up in which several practitioners work in a team and combine their area of clinical specializations in order to offer a complete service to patients. These dental clinics also allow practitioners to share both working expenses (personal assistant, rent, etc.) and investment costs.

However, although equipment is shared, each practitioner wishes to continue with the same work habits. Thus, there is a requirement for versatile work tools which can be used in an extremely flexible way by several people. The equipment, in particular dental units and table top equipment, must therefore be able to be adapted to the requirements of each user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to satisfy this requirement, in addition to others, by providing an interface device between a user and a surgical or dental instrument which enables a user to recreate the work environment that he is used to in the context where equipment is shared between several users

The present invention therefore concerns a portable human-machine interface device intended to be removably connected to a controller of at least one surgical or dental instrument, said interface device including hardware and software means allowing a user to enter an instruction or data into the interface device to control, via the controller, the operation of the surgical or dental instrument.

Owing to these features, the present invention provides a removable human-machine interface device via which the user can recreate the work environment that he is used to simply by connecting the interface device to the controller of the surgical or dental instruments that the user wishes to employ. The portable and removable nature of the interface device according to the invention thus enables the user, wherever he is, always to have at his disposal the user programmes for each different instrument. Moreover, the removable nature of the interface device allows several users to share the same equipment, each user being provided with his own interface device allowing him to work in his usual manner.

According to a complementary feature of the invention, the interface device and the controller form a master/slave assembly in which the interface device is the master and the controller is the slave.

According to another feature of the invention, the interface device includes hardware and software means for processing the data originating from the controller of the surgical or dental instrument and sending back the corresponding instructions to the controller.

According to yet another feature of the invention, the interface device includes hardware and software means for processing and storing the data from the controller of the surgical or dental instrument and exporting this information to a resident or remote database.

According to yet another feature of the invention, the interface device includes at least one keyboard allowing the user to enter an instruction or data and at least one means of displaying data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention started from the observation that practitioners, dentists or surgeons are required to use an ever increasing number of surgical or dental instruments in the daily practice of their profession. To deal with this situation, the tendency is to fit the power and control units (commonly called a “unit”) with the largest possible number of instruments so that the user interface of the unit can be used to control all the instruments. However, the control means of the unit does not always have the flexibility necessary for all the functions of the instruments to be used. This is why practitioners often have to purchase additional instruments commonly called “table top equipment”. However, the combined use of the unit instruments and the table top equipment is not always problem free for the practitioner. Indeed, it is not unusual for the user environment of the unit instruments and of the table top equipment instruments to be different. Practitioners must therefore constantly juggle with different user environments or interfaces with which they are not equally familiar. This thus means an additional work load for the practitioners which represents a risk for the practitioners themselves or for their patients. Further, with the development of dental clinics which group together several practitioners, there is the problem of shared use of common equipment. It is in fact desirable for each practitioner, taking over from one of his colleagues, to find the user environment he is used to as quickly as possible. In the state of the art, this can only be achieved with numerous prior adjustments which are a waste of time and involve the risk of errors. There was therefore a need in the state of the art for a device providing a universal human-machine interface for use with a variety of instruments in an identical contextual environment, which could be transported from one piece of equipment to another.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to satisfy this requirement by providing a human-machine interface device intended to be removably connected to a controller of at least one surgical or dental instrument.

Designated as a whole by the general reference numeral1(seeFIG. 1A), this interface device includes hardware and software means allowing a user to enter an instruction or data into the interface device1according to the invention to control, via a controller2, operation of a surgical or dental instrument selected from a plurality of instruments,4. . . ,4i. . . ,4n.

“Controller” means a system that groups together the electronic power circuits for supplying electric current to at least one surgical or dental instrument4and the algorithm programmes for regulating the operation of instrument4. By design, controller2is a sedentary system which is enclosed in the frame of a power and control unit (known as a “unit”)6or a piece of table top equipment8.

Controller2controls the operation of at least one surgical or dental instrument4. “Instrument” means in a non-limiting manner one or several motors, handpieces, contra-angles, turbines, tartar removers, electric saws and other devices. These instruments may be connected to unit6or to table top equipment8.

According to the invention, the same interface device1, via the same controller2, integrated for example in a unit6, controls several surgical or dental instruments4, . . . ,4i. . . ,4n. Moreover, the same interface device1may be connected to different controllers2, integrated for example in a unit6and in a piece of table top equipment8(seeFIG. 1B). Finally, several interface devices1, . . . ,1i, . . . ,1nbelonging to different users can be connected to the same controller2(seeFIG. 2).

To enable a user to control the operation of a given surgical or dental instrument4, interface device1according to the invention includes at least one keyboard10allowing the user to enter an instruction or data and at least one means of displaying information12. According to a first embodiment, keyboard10is a real keypad combined with a display screen for example a liquid crystal display. According to a second embodiment, keyboard10and display device12are combined in a touch screen which includes a virtual keyboard and a display screen.

A given interface device1is connected to controller2for example of a unit6via a wired connection or wireless connection. In the case of a wired connection between interface device1and controller2, this connection may be achieved via a base or docket station14placed on or fixedly integrated in unit6at a place arranged for such purpose. The fact that interface device1is placed on its base14ensures the mechanical stability of interface device1and automatically sets up the electrical connection between interface device1and controller2of unit6. The electrical connection may be achieved via a specific electric connector16(seeFIG. 3).

It will be noted that depending on the type of interface device1and case thereof employed, the base14provided for receiving interface device1may vary, differing for example in the geometry of the place which houses interface device1, the position of the connector or even the design (colour, shape). Any risk of improper use of interface device1is thus avoided.

Interface device1according to the invention may be a device available on the consumer market such as for example a smartphone like an i-Phone® or any other apparatus provided with a keyboard and screen as described above and able to communicate with the external environment via a wired or wireless connection.

Interface device1according to the invention can communicate with controller2of surgical or dental instrument4via a digital communication protocol. In the case of the present invention, an RS-232 serial communication bus was chosen, mainly for reasons of simplicity of implementation and security of use. It goes without saying however that other communication protocols such as Ethernet, USB, CAN, RS-485, any type of local bus or wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth may also be envisaged.

Interface device1according to the invention may be powered via controller2, which is in turn powered by unit6or table top equipment8in which it is implemented. According to a variant, interface device1may operate by means of ordinary batteries or rechargeable batteries which can be recharged by controller2integrated in unit6or even by means of a separate charger. Finally, it is possible to envisage directly connecting the interface device1to the electric power grid.

According to the invention, interface device1includes hardware and software means for processing the information supplied by the user and controller2and for sending instructions to controller2and to display device12. Interface device1and controller2therefore form a master/slave assembly in which interface device1is the master and controller2is the slave.

The software implemented in interface device1therefore includes, in particular, all the programmes necessary for using surgical or dental instrument4connected to unit6or to table top equipment8and the communication protocol between interface device1and controller2. Several user programmes each corresponding to a different instrument can be installed in interface device1. Alternatively, the same software includes the user programmes for several instruments.

The data processing user programmes for the various instruments4can be loaded in interface device1according to the invention from a personal computer by means of an integrated connector, via a wireless connection or by means of a USB stick which is directly connected to interface device1. It is also possible to envisage downloading programmes from an internet site. Other computer applications, for example, for storing and processing data gathered during surgical operations to form patient databases, or for managing a diary may also be installed in interface device1.

Using the same transmission channels as those mentioned above, the data contained in an interface device1could also be exported to a central server or the data from two such interface devices could be synchronised.

It goes without saying that this invention is not limited to the embodiment that has just been described and that various simple alterations and variants can be envisaged by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the claims annexed to this Patent Application. It will be noted that, for reasons of security, it is not recommended to open any applications other than those necessary for using the instruments required for the treatment.