A system for performing minimally invasive cardiac procedures. The system includes a pair of surgical instruments that are coupled to a pair of robotic arms. The instruments have end effectors that can be manipulated to hold and suture tissue. The robotic arms are coupled to a pair of master handles by a controller. The handles can be moved by the surgeon to produce a corresponding movement of the end effectors. The movement of the handles is scaled so that the end effectors have a corresponding movement that is different, typically smaller, than the movement performed by the hands of the surgeon. The scale factor is adjustable so that the surgeon can control the resolution of the end effector movement. The movement of the end effector can be controlled by an input button, so that the end effector only moves when the button is depressed by the surgeon. The input button allows the surgeon to adjust the position of the handles without moving the end effector, so that the handles can be moved to a more comfortable position. The system may also have a robotically controlled endoscope which allows the surgeon to remotely view the surgical site. A cardiac procedure can be performed by making small incisions in the patient's skin and inserting the instruments and endoscope into the patient. The surgeon manipulates the handles and moves the end effectors to perform a cardiac procedure such as a coronary artery bypass graft.

Method and apparatus for performing minimally invasive cardiac procedures

A cookbook of algorithms for common image processing applicationsThanks to advances in computer hardware and software, algorithms have been developed that support sophisticated image processing without requiring an extensive background in mathematics This bestselling book has been fully updated with the newest of these, including 2D vision methods in content-based searches and the use of graphics cards as image processing computational aids Its an ideal reference for software engineers and developers, advanced programmers, graphics programmers, scientists, and other specialists who require highly specialized image processingAlgorithms now exist for a wide variety of sophisticated image processing applications required by software engineers and developers, advanced programmers, graphics programmers, scientists, and related specialistsThis bestselling book has been completely updated to include the latest algorithms, including 2D vision methods in content-based searches, details on modern classifier methods, and graphics cards used as image processing computational aidsSaves hours of mathematical calculating by using distributed processing and GPU programming, and gives non-mathematicians the shortcuts needed to program relatively sophisticated applicationsAlgorithms for Image Processing and Computer Vision, 2nd Edition provides the tools to speed development of image processing applications

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Algorithms for image processing and computer vision

A robotic system that moves a surgical instrument in response to the actuation of a foot pedal that can be operated by the foot of a surgeon. The robotic system has an end effector that is adapted to hold a surgical instrument such as an endoscope. The end effector is coupled to a robotic arm assembly which can move the endoscope relative to the patient. The system includes a computer which controls the movement of the robotic arm in response to input signals received from the foot pedal.

Automated endoscope system for optimal positioning

This invention is a surgical system (10) that may include a remotely controlled surgical instrument. The surgical instrument may be coupled to a tool driver (1602) that can spin, and actuate the instrument. The instrument may include an actuator rod that is coupled to an end effector (1710), and detachably connected to a push rod (1654). The push rod (1836) can move relative to the handle to actuate the end effector. The end effector may include a fixture that conforms to the shape of a needle (1712). The handle (1812) can be secured to the tool driver by inserting pins into corresponding slots that are located on both the instrument and the tool driver. The instrument can be controlled by an operator through a pair of handles (1806). Each handle may be mechanically balanced by a counterweight. The surgical system may also include a touch pad (1808) that allows the operator to enter parameters of the system.

Method and apparatus for performing minimally invasive surgical procedures

The extraction of stereo-disparity information from two images depends upon establishing a correspondence between them. In this article we analyze the nature of the correspondence computation and derive a cooperative algorithm that implements it. We show that this algorithm successfully extracts information from random-dot stereograms, and its implications for the psychophysics and neurophysiology of the visual system are briefly discussed.

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Cooperative Computation of Stereo Disparity

The document image processes used in a recently developed text reading system are described. The system consists of three major components: document analysis, document understanding, and character segmentation/recognition. The document analysis component extracts lines of text from a page for recognition. The document understanding component extracts logical relationships between the document constituents. The character segmentation/recognition component extracts characters from a text line and recognizes them. Experiments on more than a hundred documents have proved that the proposed approaches to document analysis and document understanding are robust even for multicolumned and multiarticle documents containing graphics and photographs, and that the proposed character segmentation/recognition method is robust enough to cope with omnifont characters which frequently touch each other. >

Major components of a complete text reading system

An acoustic signal processing circuit extracts input speech pattern data and subsidiary feature data from an input speech signal. The input speech pattern data comprise frequency spectra, whereas the subsidiary feature data comprise phoneme and acoustic features. These data are then stored in a data buffer memory. The similarity measures between the input speech pattern data stored in the data buffer memory and reference speech pattern data stored in a dictionary memory are computed by a similarity computation circuit. When the largest similarity measure exceeds a first threshold value and when the difference between the largest similarity measure and the second largest measure exceeds a second threshold value, category data of the reference pattern which gives the largest similarity measure is produced by a control circuit to correspond to an input speech. When recognition cannot be performed, the categories of the reference speech patterns which respectively give the largest to mth similarity measures are respectively compared with the subsidiary feature data. In this manner, subsidiary feature recognition of the input voice is performed by a subsidiary feature recognition section.

Speech recognition system

An iterative prediction and correction method for automatic stereocomparison

This paper presents an efficient and powerful character segmentation method which enables touching characters in a document to be read accurately at high speed. The character segmentation phase extracts characters from a text line. Connected components in a text line image may have to be segmented or combined to form recognizable characters. For example, the character ‘i’ is formed by combining two components. Touching characters are segmented to identify each character. Segmenting touching characters is an open problem, whose solution would advance the field. Touching characters have several candidates for their break position, which are then confirmed by recursive segmentation and recognition, and finally by the determination of the linguistic context. There are several possible candidates at each stage. For example, several candidates for the break position of touching characters are nominated. Any segmented area might possibly fit several alternative characters. Therefore, an efficient resolution of ambiguity at each stage is significantly critical and indispensable for practical text reading. The authors’ approach is based on knowledge about character composition (e.g. an ‘m’ is like a combination of an ‘r’ and an ‘n’), as well as knowledge about omni-fonts. Knowledge about character composition compresses the number of recursive segmentation and recognition.

Haruo Asada

Papers

Major components of a complete text reading system

Speech recognition system

Major components of a complete text reading system

An iterative prediction and correction method for automatic stereocomparison

Resolving Ambiguity in Segmenting Touching Characters