Patent ID: 7175346

Claim:
An x-ray apparatus comprising: a C-arm; an x-ray source mounted at a first end of said C-arm and a radiation detector mounted at a second, opposite end of said C-arm; a motor in driving connection with said C-arm; a control unit connected to said motor for controlling said motor for servo-supported adjustment of said C-arm through an angulation angle and an orbital angle of said C-arm; and a sensor membrane disposed on and along a circumference of said C-arm for sensing directions and magnitudes of multi-directional forces manually applied to said C-arm by an operator, said sensor membrane being connected to said control unit and supplying a signal thereto, representing said directions and magnitudes, and said control unit operating said motor, substantially simultaneously with the manually applied multi-directional forces and sensing of said directions and magnitudes thereof by said sensor membrane, dependent on the directions and magnitudes of said applied forces to assist the operator in adjusting said C-arm along said directions while said multi-directional forces are being manually applied.