APPARATUS FOR MONITORING THE ALIGNMENT OF MARKING LASERS

Abstract

Apparatus for monitoring the alignment of marking lasers in a room for diagnosis and/or treatment in the radiation therapy, characterized by a housing, which is provided with holding means for the installation in the room and which has the following a linearly extending photosensor and an analyzing unit, which compares the position of the light generated by the laser on the photosensor with a reference position, and generates a corresponding signal upon a deviation of the measured position from the reference position.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will now be explained in more detail by means of a realization example.

FIG. 1 shows in a schematic view a monitoring apparatus, installed in a room.

FIG. 2 shows the housing of a monitoring apparatus in a perspective view, and

FIG. 3 shows the substantial components with respect to the monitoring and the fine adjustment of the marking lasers, in a block diagram.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While this invention may be embodied in many different forms, there are described in detail herein a specific preferred embodiment of the invention. This description is an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the particular embodiment illustrated

FIG. 1 shows in a schematic view a room 10 for a therapeutic machine. In the room, a patient support 12 is provided, which can be moved into a desired position with respect to the therapeutic machine (not shown) with the aid of an adjustment unit, disposed in the table foot 14. A patient laying on the support is irradiated by a laterally arranged laser. The laser creates a light plane 18, which runs approximately parallel to the surface of the support 12 in the shown example. The further line lasers are not shown in FIG. 1, which are used for aligning the patient. Usually, a pair of line lasers is arranged laterally on the height level of the patient laying on the support 12, the light planes of which run approximately parallel to the surface of the support 12. Further, a line laser is provided for a sagittal line along the longitudinal axis of the patient. In order to align the patient as accurately as possible, a transversely standing light plane is additionally directed to the patient.

In order to check the fine adjustment of the laser 16, a monitoring device 20 is provided according to the present invention, which is mounted in a predetermined position on the wall 22 in the treatment room. The monitoring device 20 has a line sensor 24 (compare FIG. 2), The line sensor 24 is disposed transversely to the light plane 18 in the installed position Any deadjustment of the laser 16 along the direction 26 is sensed by the line sensor 24 and can be analyzed here.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic view of an installed monitoring equipment of the alignment of the marking lasers. In the shown example, five monitoring devices 28 to 36 are provided. Each of the monitoring devices detects the position in which the laser impinges on the monitoring device. Besides to the spatial analysis of the measurement results with respect to if the laser signals meet the monitoring device in the predetermined reference position, the position signals are routed to a central computer 38, which analyses the position signals and generates corresponding control signals for an adjustment drive of the lasers. In the realization example shown in FIG. 3, each laser 40 to 48 can be moved forward and back in one direction, respectively. In principle, the control of the adjustment drives could take place also directly by each one of the monitoring devices. Bringing together the position data first in a central computer 38 has the advantage that adjustment operations can be journalized centrally, and thus, systematic errors can be detected more easily, for instance.

The holding means for the monitoring device have also the advantage that the same can be realized as detachable holding means, so that the device according to the present invention is not irradiated itself during the irradiation, for example.

The above disclosure is intended to be illustrative and not exhaustive. This description will suggest many variations and alternatives to one of ordinary skill in this art. All these alternatives and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the claims where the term “comprising” means “including, but not limited to”. Those familiar with the art may recognize other equivalents to the specific embodiments described herein which equivalents are also intended to be encompassed by the claims.

Further, the particular features presented in the dependent claims can be combined with each other in other manners within the scope of the invention such that the invention should be recognized as also specifically directed to other embodiments having any other possible combination of the features of the dependent claims. For instance, for purposes of claim publication, any dependent claim which follows should be taken as alternatively written in a multiple dependent form from all prior claims which possess all antecedents referenced in such dependent claim if such multiple dependent format is an accepted format within the jurisdiction (e.g. each claim depending directly from claim 1 should be alternatively taken as depending from all previous claims). In jurisdictions where multiple dependent claim formats are restricted, the following dependent claims should each be also taken as alternatively written in each singly dependent claim format which creates a dependency from a prior antecedent-possessing claim other than the specific claim listed in such dependent claim below.

This completes the description of the preferred and alternate embodiments of the invention. Those skilled in the art may recognize other equivalents to the specific embodiment described herein which equivalents are intended to be encompassed by the claims attached hereto.

Claims

1. Apparatus for monitoring the alignment of marking lasers (16) in a room for diagnosis and/or treatment in the radiation therapy, characterized by a housing, which is provided with holding means for the installation in the loom and which is provided with the following a lineally extending photosensor (24) and an analyzing unit, which compares the position of the light generated by the laser on the photosensor with a reference position, and generates a corresponding signal upon a deviation of the measured position from the reference position.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the analyzing unit forms the spatial mean value of the sensor signal when the signal is spatially distributed on the sensor.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the analyzing unit is connected to a central data processing unit (38) via an interface.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the data processing unit (38) memorises the position of the light on the photosensor.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the analyzing unit generates signals for an adjustment device for the alignment of the lasers.