Surgical Microscopy Eye-Tracker Pattern Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical microscopy systems for eye surgery face challenges in maintaining precision during incisions and suturing due to unpredictable movements of the eyeball within the eye socket, leading to potential long-term consequences and difficulties in accurately placing stitches or orienting toric intraocular lenses.
Innovation Solution
The integration of an eye-tracker and pattern generator in the surgical microscopy system, which detects the position of the eye and adjusts the superimposed pattern accordingly, ensuring that the pattern remains aligned with the eye's movements, and allows for predefined suture patterns and orientation aids to be displayed, aiding the surgeon in precise incisions and implant placement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a statically superimposed ring pattern is used to guide incisions, then the pattern provides a fixed reference for cutting, but the eyeball movement during surgery causes the pattern to become misaligned with the eye, reducing cutting precision
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by transitioning from a static ring pattern to a dynamic pattern that moves together with the eyeball during surgery. The eye-tracker continuously monitors eyeball position and the pattern generator adjusts the pattern position in real-time, ensuring the pattern remains dynamically aligned with the moving eyeball throughout the surgical procedure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by using the eye-tracker to continuously detect eyeball position and feeding this information back to the pattern generator. The pattern generator then adjusts the pattern position based on the detected eyeball movement, creating a closed-loop control system that maintains accurate pattern-eye alignment throughout the surgery.
2Ease of operation
If surgical tools exert force on the eyeball during surgery, then necessary manipulations can be performed, but the eyeball position shifts unpredictably within the eye socket, causing pattern misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The feedback principle is applied by continuously monitoring eyeball position changes caused by surgical tool manipulation and automatically adjusting the pattern position in response. The eye-tracker detects position shifts resulting from surgical forces, and the pattern generator compensates by repositioning the pattern to maintain alignment with the displaced eyeball.
Solution Approach 2:
The dynamics principle addresses this contradiction by making the pattern position adaptive rather than fixed. The system dynamically responds to eyeball movements induced by surgical manipulation, continuously updating the pattern position to match the new eyeball location, thereby maintaining alignment accuracy despite ongoing surgical forces.
3Reliability
If the pattern position is fixed relative to the image, then the pattern provides a stable reference, but it cannot adapt to eyeball movements, leading to misalignment and reduced surgical precision
Solution Approach 1:
The patent resolves this contradiction by transforming the pattern from a static reference to a dynamic one that adapts to eyeball movements. The pattern maintains its functional stability as a reference by consistently tracking the eyeball position through real-time adjustments, providing both reliability and adaptability simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The feedback mechanism enables the pattern to maintain reliability as a reference while gaining adaptability. By continuously detecting eyeball position and automatically adjusting the pattern position in response, the system ensures the pattern remains a reliable guide that adapts to any eyeball movement during surgery.
Data Source
AI summary
A surgical microscopy system comprises microscopy optics for generating an image of an eye under surgery. A pattern generator generates a pattern to be superimposed with the image. An eye-tracker is provided for tracking a position of the superimposed pattern with respect to the image in case of a movement of the eye. The superimposed pattern comprises pattern elements that are equally distributed on first and second circles of different sizes, in order to give assistance when placing a suture during a corneal transplant. The superimposed pattern may also provide an assistance for orientating a toric intra-ocular lens.