A new endoscope could tackle “cable spaghetti” in operating theatres by transmitting data via light, its developers have claimed.
In development at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications in Berlin, the prototype medical device is aimed at making data cables “superfluous”, an announcement said this week (4 May).
“Without cables lying around, operations can proceed more efficiently, medical devices can be more easily cleaned and disinfected,” the announcement said. The radio systems commonly used for wireless data transfer today do not meet medical technology requirements for reliability, security and latency, however.
“Instead of radio waves, we use modulated LED light for wireless communication. Due to the locally limited propagation of light, wireless transmission with light (LiFi) is ideal for medical technology. We can already meet the requirements for high data rates over short distances,” said research leader Anagnostis Paraskevopoulos.
Working in close collaboration with endoscope company IT Concepts and St Joseph Hospital in Berlin, researchers on the Optical Wireless Communication for Medical Imaging Devices (Owimed) project are developing a wireless endoscope that can be used in laparoscopic procedures, also known as keyhole surgery.
The researchers are integrating the LiFi technology in surgical lights, using their optimal line of sight to receive data from the endoscope and transmit it to a monitor, where the images from the abdominal cavity are displayed in 4K resolution.
The system is designed to replace two cable connections used by commercial endoscopy systems: a fibreoptic cable for lighting, and another for power and data. The connections need to be isolated with a sleeve and can disturb work in operating theatres, the researchers said.
“Our wireless endoscope eliminates this problem. We integrate the optical light source in the form of an LED directly in the endoscope, which is battery-operated. We also include a battery-operated LiFi module in the endoscope, which transmits the data optically to the operating room environment and to the monitor. This only requires a few additional LiFi modules on the surgical light above the operating table,” Paraskevopoulos said.
The LiFi system works using an LED that switches on and off at high frequencies. A photodiode detects those light pulses and converts them to electrical signals. The optical wireless connection is bidirectional, enabling changes to the endoscope camera settings from the monitor.
Tests at St Joseph Hospital used the wireless endoscope prototype and the associated LiFi infrastructure in an operating room environment using a surgical simulator.
“We were able to demonstrate with the tests that our LiFi solution functions very well with regard to latency, i.e. data lag, as well as reliability, data rates, light quality and ergonomics. The feedback from the surgical team was entirely positive. Once our system is fully developed, the doctors would prefer it over the cabled variant,” Paraskevopoulos said.
Extracted from IMechE website, read more here