ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,324,684, issued on June 10, was assigned to ViOptix Inc. (Newark, Calif.).
"Detecting and avoiding blood vessels" was invented by Robert E. Lash (Redwood City, Calif.) and Jimmy Jian-min Mao (Fremont, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method differentiates a blood vessel from a nonvascular tissue during a minimally invasive surgery using a device. A device may be any penetration sensor device, such as a dilator sensor device, a hollow needle sensor device, or a trocar sensor device, which penetrates the skin and subcutaneous layers to reach a target location inside the body. The penetration sensor device includes a sensor probe whi...