MEDICAL
Body image
In its simplest
form, an endoscope features a tiny camera and light source on the end of a long tube
Keely Portway looks at some of the miniature imaging technology used in endoscopes
E
ndoscopy allows the examination and treatment of internal organs with minimal incision or invasion to the patient. In
its simplest form, an endoscope features a tiny camera and light source on the end of a long tube. Te technology actually goes back centuries, with the first such invention oſten attributed to German physicist Philip Bozzini and his Lichtleiter device, or light conductor, which was first demonstrated in 1806 using a candle and concave mirrors to view and illuminate the inside of the body. Ten, in 1853, French surgeon Antonin
Desormeaux coined the term ‘endoscope’, demonstrating an instrument that improved on Bozzini’s model by using a gasogene mixture to generate more transparent light than regular candlelight. Medical technology has increased in
sophistication over the years; now there are capsule endoscopes, such as CapsoVision’s CapsoCam Plus device, that a patient swallows to get images of their insides. Te CapsoCam Plus endoscope contains four cameras to give 360° panoramic lateral imaging of the small bowel.
Small is beautiful Size is a critical factor in developments in endoscopy, for obvious reasons, and so innovations in imaging technology are crucial to this market. Toshiba Imaging is one supplier of endoscope cameras; its 1.6mm diameter camera system includes an ultra-small CMOS sensor with 400 x 400-pixel resolution, 120-degree field of view lens, and an integrated LED. Meanwhile, OmniVision Technologies recently released its OH01A HD image sensor designed for endoscopes and catheters. It has a stacked-die architecture to keep it small, offering 1,280 x 800 resolution at 60 frames per second in a 2.5 x 1.5mm package. Shrinking the sensor, optics and lighting into a very small package creates its own set
16 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • August/September 2018
of challenges, as researchers at Johns Hopkins University discovered earlier this year. Te team developed two endoscopic probes,
one of which shrank the capabilities of a benchtop two-photon microscope into a device around 2mm in diameter. Te second device is an optical coherence tomography (OCT) probe 500µm in diameter. Te instruments are able to image fine tissue
structures and cell activity in small organs in sheep, rats and mice. If clinical trials prove successful in supporting the instruments’ value in humans, it is hoped that this technology could ultimately help to reduce the need for invasive biopsies. Dr Xingde Li, professor of biomedical
engineering at the University’s School of Medicine, commented: ‘Tese tools are able to look into organs, such as the bile duct, pancreas and lungs, giving us a faster and safer way to diagnose a variety of diseases.’
Two-photon imaging Two-photon microscopy uses cells’ native ability to glow without the use of injected dyes
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