Surgical Space Object Flow Monitoring, Stanford University
Summary
The USPTO granted US Patent 12605223B2 to The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University on April 21, 2026. The patent covers a method for monitoring object flow within a surgical space, specifically tracking needle consumption through image analysis. The invention uses computer vision to detect and log sterile packaged needles entering a surgical inventory field and tracks needle deployment during surgery.
What changed
The USPTO granted a new patent to Stanford University covering a method for automated monitoring of object flow within surgical spaces. The system uses sequential camera images to detect and track needle packages and individual needles, logging their entry as sterile and tracking deployment during surgery by incrementing and decrementing counters.
Medical device manufacturers and software developers working on surgical tracking, inventory management, or computer vision systems for operating rooms may wish to review this patent for potential licensing implications or to assess whether their own products overlap with the claimed methods.
Archived snapshot
Apr 21, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
Method for monitoring object flow within a surgical space during a surgery
Grant US12605223B2 Kind: B2 Apr 21, 2026
Assignee
The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
Inventors
Derek F. Amanatullah, Rahim Nazerali, David Y. Zhao, Albert Haque
Abstract
One variation of a method for monitoring needle consumption in a surgical space during a surgery includes: accessing a sequence of images captured by a camera facing an inventory field within the surgical space; scanning the sequence of images for needle packages and needles; in response to detecting entry of a needle package into the surgical space in a first image, logging entry of the needle package, labeled as sterile, into the inventory field at a first time and incrementing a sterile packaged needle counter for the needle package according to a first quantity of sterile needles associated with a type of the needle package; and, in response to detecting removal of a first needle from the inventory field in a second image, incrementing a deployed needle counter at a second time succeeding the first time and decrementing the sterile packaged needle counter.
CPC Classifications
A61B 90/08 A61B 50/362 A61B 90/361 A61B 90/37 A61B 2090/0804 A61B 2090/0807 A61B 2562/0233
Filing Date
2022-10-07
Application No.
17962316
Claims
20
Mentioned entities
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