As part of the European Information Society Technology's project Intracorporeal VideoProbe (IVP), researchers at IMS Chips (Stuttgart, Germany;www.ims-chips.de) have developed two prototypes of tiny endoscopes. The first is a wired endoscope called IVP1; the second is a wireless probe called IVP2 that can be taken in the form of a pill. Both prototypes are equipped with optics for illumination, as well as mechanical components for swiveling the image sensor. The head of IVP1 is 3.5 mm in diameter, and the image sensor itself is a CMOS chip measuring 2.7 × 2.3 mm.
'The great advantage of our prototype is that the image sensor is incorporated into the head of the endoscope, which provides much better images for the surgeon," says Christine Harendt from IMS Chips. Existing endoscope heads with the image sensor integrated into the head are usually twice the size. Endoscopes with the image sensor set back from the head of the probe tend to lose image resolution because of the additional fiberoptic link to the head.
While the travel of IVP2 cannot be controlled like IVP1, a motor in the head enables the image sensor to swivel to provide views in different directions. The IVP2 pill draws power by induction from a vest worn by the patient, which also picks up the images transmitted from the probe. Both prototypes are being readied for medical evaluation.
