To operate on the brain, doctors need to see fine details on a small scale. A tiny camera that could produce 3D images from inside the brain would help surgeons see more intricacies of the tissue they are handling and lead to faster, safer procedures.
An endoscope with such a camera is being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. MARVEL, ie Multi Angle Rear Viewing Endoscopic tooL, has been honored this week with the Outstanding Technology Development award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium. An endoscope is a device that examines the interior of a body part.
“With one of the world’s smallest 3D cameras, MARVEL is designed for minimally nvasive brain surgery,” said Harish Manohara, principal investigator of the project at JPL. MARVEL’s camera is a mere 0.2 inch diameter and about 0.6 inch long. It is attached to a bendable “neck” that can sweep left or right, looking around corners with up to a 120-degree arc. This allows for a highly maneuverable endoscope.
Operations with the small camera would not require the traditional open craniotomy, a procedure in which surgeons take out large parts of the skull. Stereo imaging endoscopes with dual-camera systems are already in use for minimally invasive surgeries elsewhere in the body. But surgery on the brain requires even more miniaturization. That’s why, instead of two, MARVEL has only one camera lens.
To generate 3D images, MARVEL’s camera has 2 apertures – akin to the pupil of the eye – each with its own color filter. Each filter transmits distinct wavelengths of red, green and blue light, while blocking the bands to which the other filter is sensitive. The system includes a light source that produces all 6 colors of light to which the filters are attuned. Images from each of the two sets are then merged to create the 3D effect.
The next step is a clinical prototype that meets FDA standards. In future, MARVEL camera technology could also have applications for space exploration. A miniature camera such as this could be put on small robots for 3D views.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4702
A laboratory prototype of MARVEL, one of the world’s smallest 3-D cameras. MARVEL is in the center foreground. On the display is a 3-D image of the interior of a walnut, taken by MARVEL previously, which has characteristics similar to that of a brain. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Skull Base Institute
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