Multicamera Laparoscopic Imaging With Tunable Focusing Capability

Abstract

This paper presents a solution to overcome many of the fundamental challenges faced by current laparoscopic imaging systems. Our system is developed upon the key idea that widely spread multiple tunable microcameras can cover a large range of vantage points and field of view (FoV) for intraabdominal visualization. Our design features multiple tunable-focus microcameras integrated with a surgical port to provide panoramic intraabdominal visualization with enhanced depth perception. Our system can be optically tuned to focus on objects within a range of 5 mm to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="TeX">\(\infty \) </tex-math></inline-formula> , with a FoV adjustable between 36° and 130°. Our unique approach also eliminates the requirement of an exclusive imaging port and need for navigation of cameras between ports during surgery. [2014-0176]