SpectraScience, Inc. has announced that it has been awarded U.S. Patent number 7,469,160 for its methods and apparatus for evaluating image focus.
Jim Hitchin, SpectraScience's CEO, commented, "This patent is another important addition to our expanding intellectual property portfolio."
The invention provides methods of focusing an instrument for the acquisition of optical data from a tissue sample. It allows rapid focusing in a diagnostic procedure in which quick data acquisition is desirable. For example, the techniques allow a user to focus an optical instrument quickly enough to obtain data within an optimal window of time. In one version, a user focuses an optical instrument by aligning laser spots projected onto a tissue sample within rings that are superimposed at predetermined locations within the user's visual field. The invention further allows automatic validation to detect whether the spots are sufficiently well-aligned.
Hitchin added, "Accurate data acquisition and fast focusing techniques are critical for earlier and more effective identification of normal, pre-cancerous or cancerous tissue. This invention will make our screening devices more useful to the physician and, more importantly, more effective for the patient. It allows the LUMA Cervical Imaging System to detect close to 30% more ASCUS/LSIL cervical cancer precursors than colposcopy alone, providing clinicians with a valuable tool in the fight against cervical cancer. In fact, a recent large-scale National Cancer Institute-sponsored clinical trial demonstrated that colposcopy failed to detect 33% of high-grade precancerous lesions in women referred with questionable Pap results."