US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on Aug. 26 for "Directing light into an optical fiber" (Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,399,357, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Directing light into an optical fiber" was invented by Dawn K. Gifford (Blacksburg, Va.), Mark E. Froggatt (Blacksburg, Va.), Eric E. Sanborn (Blacksburg, Va.) and Brooks Childers (Christiansburg, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system can direct light into an optical fiber. Imaging optics can form an image of an end of an optical fiber. An actuatable optical element can be configured to define an optical path that extends to the actuatable optical element and further extends to the end of the optical fiber. A processor can determine...