IP Library Granted Patent US 12,279,841
Granted Patent B2
US 12,279,841 · App. 17/929,464 · Granted Apr 22, 2025

Robotic surgical safety via video processing

Inventors: Caitlin Donhowe (Mountain View, CA); Joëlle Barral (Mountain View, CA); Xing Jin (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: Verily Life Sciences LLC
A61B34/30A61B34/20A61B34/25A61B34/37A61B90/361A61B90/37A61B2034/2065A61B2090/371G06V2201/034
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,279,841
App. No.
17/929,464
Granted
Apr 22, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

One example method for improving robotic surgical safety via video processing includes identifying, during a robotic surgical procedure, one or more surgical tools using one or more images of the surgical procedure captured by a camera, the robotic surgical procedure employing a robotic surgical device controlling the one or more identified surgical tools; predicting, for at least one of the one or more images, one or more loaded surgical tools that are controlled by the robotic surgical device and should be in a field of view of the camera; comparing the one or more identified surgical tools with the one or more loaded surgical tools; determining that at least one of the one or more loaded surgical tools does not match any of the one or more identified surgical tools; and causing the at least one loaded tool of the robotic surgical device to be disabled.

Claims (19)

1. A method that includes one or more processing devices performing operations comprising:

identifying a surgical tool used by a robotic surgical device in a surgical procedure using one or more images of the surgical procedure;

estimating a pose of the surgical tool based, at least in part, upon the one or more images;

determining a difference between the estimated pose of the surgical tool and a predicted pose of the surgical tool predicted through a kinematic chain model of the robotic surgical device;

calculating a force exerted by the surgical tool based, at least in part, upon the difference of the estimated pose and the predicted pose of the surgical tool;

determining that the force is higher than a threshold; and

causing the force of the surgical tool to be reduced.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating the pose of the surgical tool based on the one or more images comprises at least one of

matching an image of the surgical tool with a database of tool pose images, or

predicting the pose of the surgical tool by applying a neural network trained to identify tool poses on the one or more images.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating the pose of the surgical tool comprises estimating a depth of the surgical tool relative to a camera capturing the one or more images.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the depth of the surgical tool is estimated based on one or more of a geometry of the surgical tool, one or more fiducials on the surgical tool, or one or more stereo images of the surgical tool.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the force of the surgical tool is calculated further based on one or more of a geometry of the surgical tool or a material of the surgical tool.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the surgical tool using the one or more images comprises:

estimating a position of the surgical tool; and

recognizing a type of the surgical tool using the one or more images.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the surgical tool from the one or more images comprises:

identifying an identifier visible from the one or more images; and

interpreting the identifier to identify the surgical tool.

Assignments (2)
CHANGE OF ADDRESS Recorded Nov 19, 2024
From: VERILY LIFE SCIENCES LLC
To: VERILY LIFE SCIENCES LLC
Reel/Frame 069390/0656 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 2, 2022
From: DONHOWE, CAITLIN; BARRAL, JOËLLE; JIN, XING
To: VERILY LIFE SCIENCES LLC
Reel/Frame 060981/0094 →
Continuity (3)
Continuation 16694223 · Nov 25, 2019
Provisional Application 62775501 · Dec 5, 2018
Related Publication 20220415006A1 · Dec 29, 2022
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