The AirScope is a Hopkins rod lens replacement. It overcome many of the drawbacks of traditional endoscopy by eliminating cables and offering low latency high definition wireless video transmission. The AirScope was developed in collaboration with Mkhokheli Ncube.
The AirScope attached to a working element of a resectosocope

Rationale for the device

The cystoscope had seen few changes in design since Nitze’s assembly in 1879. Contemporary rigid endoscopy replies on lenses invented by Harold Hopkins in the 1950s and pioneered commercially by Karl Storz. Hopkins developed these rod lenses by accident when he observed that thicker glass improved lens mounting and stability and dramatically improved image quality.
Traditional Hopkins rod lens
Hopkins is also regarded as the father of flexible endoscopy. He stated: “An optical unit has been devised which will convey optical images along a flexible axis. It comprises a bundle of fibres of glass, we call it the fibrescope“. (A Flexible Fibrescope. Nature (1954)). Basil Hirschowitz, a South African, used Hopkins’s idea to develop the first flexible gastroscope.

Hopkins rod lenses and fibre optic light cables have certain limitations:

1) significant weight of the scope, camera and cables,
2) reduced maneuverability afforded by the external cables and
3) since the lens is relatively fragile it can easily be damaged requiring costly replacement.

Features of the AirScope

1) HD (1080 x 720) wireless video transmission to a traditional stack.
2)Replacement of heavy fibre light cables with LED illumination.
3) Replacement of the external clip on camera, cable and processing unit with an off the shelf CMOS camera at the tip of the lens.
4) Low cost off the shelf components used.
5) Imperceptible latency of < 200ms.
6) Long battery of over 2 hours, using a 1200 mAh LiPo battery.
7) Light weight (184g)

Patent

SOUTH AFRICAN PATENT 2011/05975

Awards

Mkhokheli Ncube and John Lazarus celebrate after winning the “Best Affordable New Technologies in Urology Competition” for a paper on “A novel Low cost wireless endoscope camera” at the 2018 Société Internationale d’Urologie congress in Seoul, Korea. The AirScope is a collaboration with Mkhokheli, a biomedical engineer who trained at UCT.

Supporting literature

Lazarus-2020Download

Media

News article for the University of Cape Town’s website.

Future Developments

The wireless video technology used in the AirScope can be transferred to other types of endoscopy. A wireless laparoscope is picture here. (Courtesy Mkhokheli Ncube)

References

  1. Lazarus and Ncube. A low-cost wireless endoscope camera: a preliminary report. Afr J Urol (2021) 27:26  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12301-021-00127-z
  2. Lazarus J. The AirScope: a novel wireless laparoscope. J. Med. Devices. December 2012 Volume 6, Issue 4, p501
  3. Ncube, M., Sivarasu, S., & Lazarus, J. (2014). Design of an Ureteropyeloscope. Journal of Medical Devices, 8(2), 020924. doi:10.1115/1.4027024