ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,543,931, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to EndoChoice Inc. (Alpharetta, Ga.).
"Endoscope control unit with braking system" was invented by Alexander Lang (Wedel, Germany) and Stephan Wieth (Klein Nordende, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A control unit that includes a braking system for fixing the position of an endoscope tip is provided. The control system includes an up-down control knob and a right-left control knob. The brakes are engaged by rotating the control knob itself counter-clockwise from a free wheeling position. After the brakes have been engaged, a sufficient amount of force applied to the control knobs will move t...