US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on March 24 for "Medical apparatus with optical sensing, and related devices and methods" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,582,429, issued on March 24, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Medical apparatus with optical sensing, and related devices and methods" was invented by Natalie Burkhard (East Palo Alto, Calif.) and John Ryan Steger (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method comprises grasping material between a pair of jaw members of a medical instrument; sensing light transmitted from the material grasped between the pair of jaw members to a location exterior to the pair of jaw members; and altering a grasping force exerted by the pair of jaw members on the material being grasped based on the sensi...