Navigation of tubular networks

US10796432B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Auris Health, Inc. · US

Inventors

• David S. Mintz · Mountain View, US
• Atiyeh Ghoreyshi · San Francisco, US
• Prasanth Jeevan · San Mateo, US
• Yiliang Xu · Cupertino, US
• Gehua Yang · Pittsburgh, US
• Matthew Joseph Leotta · Clifton Park, US
• Charles V. Stewart · Clifton Park, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 17, 2018
• Grant date: Oct 6, 2020
• Expiry date: Dec 17, 2038

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06T2207/30196
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses provide improved navigation through tubular networks such as lung airways by providing improved estimation of location and orientation information of a medical instrument (e.g., an endoscope) within the tubular network. Various input data such as image data, EM data, and robot data are used by different algorithms to estimate the state of the medical instrument, and the state information is used to locate a specific site within a tubular network and/or to determine navigation information for what positions/orientations the medical instrument should travel through to arrive at the specific site. Probability distributions together with confidence values are generated corresponding to different algorithms are used to determine the medical instrument's estimated state.