HK1152578A - Remote presence system mounted to operating room hardware - Google Patents

Description

Remote presence system installed on operating room hardware

Cross Reference to Related Applications

This application claims priority to application No.61/070,348 filed on 20/3/2008.

Technical Field

The subject matter of the present disclosure relates generally to the field of robotic telepresence (tele-presence) systems.

Background

It is sometimes desirable to have a mentor assist in the procedure during the performance of a surgical procedure. Unfortunately, this typically requires the mentor to be located at the surgical site, which is often impractical. A robotic system sold under the trademark Da Vinci by interior surgery, Inc is currently developed that allows a surgeon to perform a Surgical procedure remotely using a robotic arm located at the Surgical site. This allows the specialist to actually perform the procedure from a remote location. The Da Vinci system is bulky and expensive, and therefore not available to every medical facility. It is desirable to have a system that allows remote medical consultation that is relatively inexpensive and easy to install in existing operating rooms.

Disclosure of Invention

A robotic system includes a remote station and a robot face. The robot face includes a camera coupled to a monitor of the remote station and a monitor coupled to a camera of the remote station. The robot face and remote station also have a speaker and microphone coupled together. The robot face may be coupled with a boom (boom). Alternatively, the robot face may be attached to the medical table using an attachment mechanism.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a telepresence system;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the robot face of the system;

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the robot face;

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an alternative embodiment of a telepresence system;

FIG. 5 is a rear view of the robot face of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram of a display user interface of a remote station;

FIG. 7 is a display user interface displaying electronic medical records;

fig. 8 is a display user interface displaying images and electronic medical records simultaneously.

Detailed Description

A robotic system is disclosed that includes a remote station and a robot face. The robot face includes a camera coupled to a monitor of the remote station and a monitor coupled to a camera of the remote station. The robot face and remote station also have a speaker and microphone coupled together. The robot face may be coupled with a boom. The boom may extend from a ceiling of the medical facility. Alternatively, the robot face may be attached to the medical table using an attachment mechanism. The robot face and remote station allow medical personnel to provide remote medical consultation through the system.

Referring to the drawings, and more particularly to the reference numerals, FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate a telepresence system 10. The system 10 includes a boom 12, a robot face 14, and a remote control station 16. The remote control station 16 may be coupled to the robot face 14 via a network 18. For example, network 18 may be a packet-switched network, such as the Internet, or a circuit-switched network, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or other broadband system. Alternatively, the robot face 14 may be coupled to the remote station 16 through a satellite network.

The remote control station 16 may include a computer 22 having a monitor 24, a camera 26, a microphone 28, and a speaker 30. The computer 22 may also include an input device 32, such as a joystick or a mouse. The control station 16 is typically located remotely from the robot face 14. Although only one remote control station 16 is shown, the system 10 may include a plurality of remote stations 16. Generally any number of robot faces 14 may be coupled to any number of remote stations 16 or other robot faces 14. For example, one remote station 16 may be coupled to multiple robot faces 14, or one robot face 14 may be coupled to multiple remote stations 16 or multiple robot faces 14. The system may include an arbiter (not shown) that controls access between the robot face(s) 14 and the plurality of remote stations 16.

The boom 12 may extend from a ceiling 34 of a medical facility. The boom 12 may include articulated joints 36 and 38 that provide at least two degrees of freedom and allow a user to move the robot face 14 relative to a medical table 40, such as an operating room ("OR") table.

The boom 12 may have additional joints 42 and 44 that allow the robot face 14 to rock and tilt, respectively. The joints 42 and 48 may include actuators 46 and 48, respectively, that may be remotely actuated by operation of the input device 32 at the remote station 16.

Each robot face 14 includes camera(s) 50, monitor 52, microphone(s) 54, and speaker(s) 56. The robot camera 50 is coupled to the remote monitor 24 so that a user at the remote station 16 can view the patient on the table 40. Also, a robot monitor 52 is coupled to the remote camera 26 so that medical personnel at the surgical site can view the user of the remote station 16. Microphones 28 and 54, and speakers 30 and 56, allow for voice communication between the system operator and the personnel at the surgical site.

The system 10 allows a system user (e.g., a surgical specialist) to view a patient on the table 40 through the remote station 16 and the robot face 14 and provide a remote medical consultation. The surgical field personnel can raise the question and reflect it to the system operator through the system. The robotic camera 50 allows the specialist to view the patient and enhance medical consultation. The robot monitor 52 may display an expert to provide a sense of presence at the surgical site. The boom 12 allows a worker to move the robot face 14 into or out of the surgical field.

The modification of the robot face 14 may be performed on a boom already existing in the medical facility. For example, some current medical facilities include a monitor attached to a boom. The robot face 14 may be employed in place of an existing monitor and subsequently coupled to the remote station 16.

Fig. 4 and 5 show an alternative embodiment 10' of the system in which the robot face 14 is attached to the table 40 using an attachment mechanism 70. The attachment mechanism 70 may include a pair of clamps 72 that are pressed into rails 74 of the table 40. The attachment mechanism 70 may have a sleeve 76 that slides relative to a housing 78 so that a user can adjust the height of the robot face 14. The face may be locked in place by rotation of knob 80.

The attachment mechanism 70 may include a neck 82 having joints 84 and 86, which joints 84 and 86 allow for pan and tilt, respectively, of the robot face 14. The joints 84 and 86 may be manually actuated or include actuators 88 and 90, respectively, that may be actuated by the input device 32 at the remote station 16.

Attachment mechanism 70 may include a handle 92 that allows a user to pull or push robot face 14 toward or away from table 40. The attachment mechanism 70 makes the robotic face 14 easy to use at the surgical site, particularly in the case of operating rooms without a boom.

The remote station computer 22 may run Microsoft OS software and WINDOWS XP or other operating systems, such as LINUX. The remote computer 22 may also operate a video driver, a camera driver, an audio driver, and a joystick driver. Compression software (e.g., MPEG CODEC) may be employed for transmission and reception of video images.

The systems 10 and 10' may have specific components and software that are the same as or similar to the robotic system provided in the example system described in U.S. patent 6,925,357, entitled RP-7, assigned to InTouch-Health, Inc, of santa barbara, california, which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 6 shows a display user interface ("DUI") 120 that may be displayed at the remote station 16. The DUI120 may include a robot window 122 that displays a video image captured by a camera of the robot face 14. The DUI120 may also include a station window 124 that displays video images provided by the camera of the remote station 16. The DUI120 may be part of an application program stored and operated by the computer 22 of the remote station 16.

As shown in FIG. 7, the DUI120 may include a graphical button 126 that may be selected to display electronic medical records. Button 126 may be activated to continuously view the video images and the electronic medical record. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 8, the viewport 122 may be segmented to display the video image and the electronic medical record simultaneously. The viewport may allow the physician to modify the medical record by adding, changing, or deleting all or a portion of the medical record. The remote clinician may also add still images or video captured by the camera of the robot to the medical record.

The DUI120 may have a monitor data bar 128 that may display data generated by a medical monitoring device (not shown) and transmitted to a remote station. This data may be added to the electronic medical record automatically or through user input. For example, the monitor data column 128 may be added to the record by "dragging" the data into the window 122.

The DUI120 may include alert input icons 130 and 132. A user at the remote station may select the alert icon 130 to produce an alert indication, such as a sound from a speaker of the robot face 14. Selection of the icon generates an alert input to the robot face 14. The robot face 14 generates a sound through its speaker in response to the alarm input. For example, the sound may mimic a horn sound. Thus, the icon 130 may have the appearance of a horn.

Alert icon 132 may be selected to request access to the video image from the robot face. The default state of the robot may be not to send video information to the remote station. Selecting the alert icon 132 sends an alert input, such as a request for access to a robot face. The robot face then generates an alert indicator. The alert indicator may be a sound generated by a robot speaker and/or a visual cue on a robot monitor. For example, the visual cue may be a "flashing" graphical icon. The sound may then simulate knocking. Thus, the alert icon 132 may have the appearance of a door ring.

In response to the alert indicator, the user may provide user input, such as pressing a button on the robot face, or selecting a graphical image on the robot monitor, to allow access to the robot camera. The robot face may also have a voice recognition system that allows the user to authorize access with voice commands. The user input causes the robot face to begin transmitting video images from the robot camera to the remote station requesting access to the robot face. An audible communication may be established prior to the cycle of alarm input and response to allow a user at the remote station to speak with a call recipient at the robot face.

The DUI120 may include a location display 138 that provides the location of the robot's face. The CHANGE button 140 may be selected to CHANGE the default robot face in the new session. The CHANGE button 140 can be used to select and control different robot faces in a system having multiple robot faces. The user may start or terminate a session by selecting block 142. When the user selects the block to start the session, block 142 changes from CONNECT to disconnect. System settings and support may be selected via buttons 144 and 146.

Both the robot view 122 and the remote station view 124 may have associated graphics to alter the video and audio displays. Each window may have an associated graphical audio slider bar 148 for changing the sound level of the loudspeaker and another slider bar 152 for changing the volume of the speaker.

The DUI120 may have slider bars 150, 154, and 156 to change the zoom, focus, and brightness, respectively, of the camera. A still picture may be taken at the robot face or at the remote station by selecting one of the graphical camera icons 158. The still picture may be an image presented at the corresponding view 122 or 124 when the camera icon 158 is selected. Video can be captured and played back through the graphical icon 160. The real-time video may be returned to after taking a still picture, capturing a video, or playing back a slide show by selecting the graphical LIVE button 162.

Still pictures can be loaded from the disc for viewing by selecting icon 164. The stored still picture can be reviewed by selecting button 166. The number of images displayed relative to the total number of images is shown by graphical block 168. The user can move the still image quickly in a slideshow fashion or move the captured video clip by moving the slider bar 170. The captured video image may be paused by selecting circle 174. Playback can be resumed by the same button 174. The video or still image may be removed from the active menu via button 172. A video or still image may be transmitted to the robot by selecting icon 176. For example, a doctor at a remote station may transmit X-rays onto a robot screen.

The system may have the ability to provide annotations 184 to images displayed within windows 122 and/or 124. For example, a doctor at the remote station may annotate a certain portion of the image captured by the robot face camera. The annotated image may be stored by the system. The system also allows for sending annotations of the image to the robot face via icon 176. For example, a doctor may send X-rays to the robot face, which are displayed through the robot screen. The doctor may annotate the X-ray to indicate a portion of the X-ray to personnel located at the robot site. This may help to allow a physician to guide personnel at the robot site.

The display user interface may include a graphical input 186 that allows the operator to turn on or off the viewing of the remote station and remote camera.

While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art.

Claims (20)

1. A telepresence system, comprising:

a boom;

a robot face coupled with the boom, the robot face comprising a robot monitor, a robot camera, a robot speaker, and a robot microphone; and the number of the first and second groups,

a remote station coupled to the robot face, the remote station including a station monitor, a station camera, a station speaker, and a station microphone.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the boom has at least two degrees of freedom.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the remote station monitor displays a display user interface.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the boom includes a plurality of actuators to provide at least two degrees of freedom to the robot face.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the remote station transmits commands to actuate the plurality of actuators.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a broadband network coupled to the robot face and the remote station.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a medical facility supporting the boom and a medical table in physical proximity to the robot face.

8. A method for providing a remote medical consultation, comprising:

moving a robot face attached to the boom;

transmitting the image from the robot camera to a station monitor of the remote station;

a robot monitor transmitting a user image from the station camera to a robot face; and the number of the first and second groups,

audio commands from the station microphone are transmitted to the robot speakers.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting an audio request from a robot microphone to a station speaker.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting an actuation command from the remote station to actuate an actuator of the boom.

11. A telepresence system that may be implemented with a medical workstation, comprising:

a robot face including a robot monitor, a robot camera, a robot speaker, and a robot microphone;

an attachment mechanism that attaches the robot face to the medical table; and

a remote station coupled to the robot face, the remote station including a station monitor, a station camera, a station speaker, and a station microphone.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the attachment mechanism has at least one degree of freedom.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the remote station monitor displays a display user interface.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the attachment mechanism includes a plurality of actuators to provide at least two degrees of freedom to the robot face.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the remote station transmits commands to actuate the plurality of actuators.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising a broadband network coupled to the robot face and the remote station.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the attachment mechanism comprises at least one clamp.

18. A method for providing a remote medical consultation, comprising:

attaching a robot face to a medical table;

transmitting the image from the robot camera to a station monitor of the remote station;

a robot monitor transmitting a user image from the station camera to a robot face; and the number of the first and second groups,

audio commands from the station microphone are transmitted to the robot speakers.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising transmitting an audio request from a robot microphone to a station speaker.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising transmitting an actuation command from a remote station to actuate an actuator of the attachment mechanism.