US Patent Issued to Olympus Medical Systems on July 7 for "Flexible manipulator" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,673,187, issued on July 7, was assigned to Olympus Medical Systems Corp. (Tokyo).

"Flexible manipulator" was invented by Yuta Fujii (Inagi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A flexible manipulator includes an insertion portion including a tubular flexible portion, a bending portion, and a distal end portion. The flexible manipulator includes an operating unit on a proximal end side of the insertion portion, the operating unit including a first operating portion. The flexible manipulator includes a tube inside the tubular flexible portion, the tube including a through-hole spirally extending along a longitudinal axis of the tube from a ...