Novel imaging technologies
Our proprietary software and AI-based algorithms coupled with a commercially available liquid lens, produce high resolution 3D and all-in-focus images at unparalleled quality
This low cost technology could be used for many applications in
medical devices, telemedicine, consumer electronics, and smartphones
including 3D photography, face recognition, self medical diagnostics, applications requiring calculation of volume and distance, microscopy, and more, all at image quality typically reserved for high-resolution medical imaging
Using this technology we created CervImage™ - the world’s first portable colposcope able to produce high-resolution 3D images to assist in early-stage detection and analysis of pre-cancer cervical lesions
This medical grade 3D imaging technology could be applied to additional applications, including smartphone photography, 3D face recognition, robotic vision, and more ...
3D face recognition concept
3D food photography (Ferrero Rocher chocolate)
ABOUT US
Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, and 80% of cases occur in the developing world. It is the leading cause of death from cancer among women in developing countries, where it causes about 190,000 deaths each year.
A lack of effective screening programs aimed at detecting and treating precancerous conditions is a key reason for the much higher cervical cancer incidence in developing countries. Although screening efforts based on Pap smears have been introduced in these areas, many have achieved only limited success, for a number of reasons, including limited access to laboratory services, lack of follow-up diagnostic, shortage of trained and skilled personnel, and cost effectiveness.
Pensievision is developing innovative three-dimensional (3D) medical imaging technology for point of care, early-stage detection and analysis of cervical cancers. This device is favorable over other screening methods for ease of use, accessibility, and cost. Most important, the screening and diagnostics does not require lab results and additional visits to the clinics.
The company’s longer term plan is to leverage this platform technology to develop, clinically test, and market a miniaturized, endoscopic, 3D-imaging device (with accompanying proprietary diagnostics software) that will leverage infrared and liquid lens technologies, to take with one click, multi-focal images in dark, confined spaces (such as arteries) throughout the body. This technology offers a transformative approach for carrying out effective and substantially lower cost screening, monitoring, and diagnosis of potentially dangerous tumors
TECHNOLOGY
To fulfill the multiple strategies of the World Health Organization (WHO) for preventing and treating cervical cancer in a wide variety of conditions around the world, we created a cost effective, portable, universal multi-functional device with innovative hardware and software. The device offers capabilities to replace and improve upon traditional colposcopy for the detection and treatment of pre-cancers of the cervix. Using techniques previously used for the operation of NASA instruments outside of Earth, our device achieves one-click, all-focus, 3D imaging using only a single perspective; minimal training is required by the user. Both software and hardware capabilities are well suited to telemedicine and remote robotic operation, borrowing from mission control strategies previously used for driving NASA’s Rovers on Mars. A tool module on the novel device allows for single-visit patient treatment and/or sample collection for follow-up laboratory analysis. We presently have two versions of the technology prototype: (1) a liquid lens based endoscope, compact enough to operate within the vaginal canal, and (2) a next generation, fiber based, micro endoscope, compact enough to operate in extremely confined spaces of the human body, such as within the cervical opening. Our long term goal is to enable screening of cervical pre-cancers both inside the cervical opening as well as on the outside surface. Our dual-approach hardware developments present invaluable steps toward this goal
ABOUT US
Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide, and 80% of cases occur in the developing world. It is the leading cause of death from cancer among women in developing countries, where it causes about 190,000 deaths each year.
A lack of effective screening programs aimed at detecting and treating precancerous conditions is a key reason for the much higher cervical cancer incidence in developing countries. Although screening efforts based on Pap smears have been introduced in these areas, many have achieved only limited success, for a number of reasons, including limited access to laboratory services, lack of follow-up diagnostic, shortage of trained and skilled personnel, and cost effectiveness.
Pensievision is developing innovative three-dimensional (3D) medical imaging technology for point of care, early-stage detection and analysis of cervical cancers. This device is favorable over other screening methods for ease of use, accessibility, and cost. Most important, the screening and diagnostics does not require lab results and additional visits to the clinics.
The company’s longer term plan is to leverage this platform technology to develop, clinically test, and market a miniaturized, endoscopic, 3D-imaging device (with accompanying proprietary diagnostics software) that will leverage infrared and liquid lens technologies, to take with one click, multi-focal images in dark, confined spaces (such as arteries) throughout the body. This technology offers a transformative approach for carrying out effective and substantially lower cost screening, monitoring, and diagnosis of potentially dangerous tumors
TECHNOLOGY
To fulfill the multiple strategies of the World Health Organization (WHO) for preventing and treating cervical cancer in a wide variety of conditions around the world, we created a cost effective, portable, universal multi-functional device with innovative hardware and software. The device offers capabilities to replace and improve upon traditional colposcopy for the detection and treatment of pre-cancers of the cervix. Using techniques previously used for the operation of NASA instruments outside of Earth, our device achieves one-click, all-focus, 3D imaging using only a single perspective; minimal training is required by the user. Both software and hardware capabilities are well suited to telemedicine and remote robotic operation, borrowing from mission control strategies previously used for driving NASA’s Rovers on Mars. A tool module on the novel device allows for single-visit patient treatment and/or sample collection for follow-up laboratory analysis. We presently have two versions of the technology prototype: (1) a liquid lens based endoscope, compact enough to operate within the vaginal canal, and (2) a next generation, fiber based, micro endoscope, compact enough to operate in extremely confined spaces of the human body, such as within the cervical opening. Our long term goal is to enable screening of cervical pre-cancers both inside the cervical opening as well as on the outside surface. Our dual-approach hardware developments present invaluable steps toward this goal
ABOUT US
Pensievision is developing innovative three-dimensional (3D) imaging technologies using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technologies used in NASA’s space telescopes. The company was founded by a seasoned interdisciplinary team and advisory board consisting of world-class experts in imaging & medicine
In order to prove our technology, which could be used for many applications in consumer electronics, smartphones, medical devices and telemedicine, we aimed at a very complex medical application and developed a single lens portable colposcope for point of care, early-stage detection and analysis of cervical cancers. Our device is favorable over other screening methods due to ease of use, accessibility, and low cost. Most importantly, neither the screening nor diagnostics requires lab results or additional visits to the clinic.
The patent pending technology (all-in-focus, high resolution 3D images from a single tunable lens) was clinically demonstrated in a pilot program in Mozambique, Africa. Results were published in the Journal of Translational Medicine
Pensievision is on-track for early 2023 FDA 510(k) clearance for a portable colposcope (the first application of the technology) with clinical studies ongoing for cervical cancer screening (at UCSD Cancer Center) and skin cancer screening (at John Hopkins hospital).
For our innovations, we were recently named one of Deep Tech Pioneers by “Hello Tomorrow” selected among 5,000 startups from 128 countries.
TECHNOLOGY
While stereoscopic 3D imaging is a widespread technology, producing high resolution 3D images from a single lens (liquid lens) is a technological challenge that Pensievision was able to overcome. Single lens 3D imaging is cost effective as it does not require expensive hardware. Instead the rendering is done using simple hardware coupled with advanced software and AI. One of the biggest advantages of having a single lens coupled with our technology, is the ability to make it available in small spaces such as smartphones and consumer electronics, and the ability to 3D image close objects in high resolution (not optimal with an array of cameras/lenses that require a minimum distance between each lens)
Creating high quality 3D images from a single-lens device in dark confined spaces inside the body is very complex and requires proprietary IP and years of development
2D IMAGE OF A CERVIX
RAW MULTI-DEPTH IMAGE OF A CERVIX
3D IMAGE OF A CERVIX PROCESSED WITH PENSIEVISION
To produce a high quality image we apply the following techniques:
The fast and efficient propriety software runs entirely on low-cost hardware such as a Raspberry Pi.
We also intelligently compress our 3D data so that it can even be sent across a low-bandwidth connection, making it optimal for telemedicine.
PRODUCTS
CervImage™ is the world’s first portable colposcope able to produce high-resolution 3D images
to assist in early-stage detection and analysis of pre-cancer cervical lesions.
For our first application, in order to fulfill the multiple strategies of the World Health Organization (WHO) for preventing and treating cervical cancer in a wide variety of conditions around the world, we created a cost effective, portable, universal multi-functional device with innovative hardware and software. This device offers capabilities to both replace and improve upon traditional colposcopy for the detection and treatment of pre-cancers of the cervix. Using techniques previously implemented for the operation of NASA instruments outside of Earth, we have achieved a device with one-click, all-focus, 3D imaging using only a single perspective; minimal training is required by the user.
Both software and hardware capabilities are well-suited to telemedicine and remote robotic operation, borrowing from mission control strategies previously used for driving NASA’s rovers on Mars. A tool module on the novel device allows for single-visit patient treatment and/or sample collection for follow-up laboratory analysis. We presently have two versions of the technology prototype: (1) a liquid lens-based endoscope, compact enough to operate within the vaginal canal, and (2) a next-generation, fiber-based, micro endoscope, compact enough to operate in extremely confined spaces of the human body, such as within the cervical opening. Our long-term goal is to enable screening of cervical pre-cancers both inside the cervical opening as well as on the outside surface.
CervImage™ Portable 3D imaging device to help detect and analyze cervical cancer lesions
Favorable over other screening methods for accuracy, ease of use, accessibility, comfort, and overall screening costs
Pensievision is currently working to develop an endoscope with an overall diameter of less than 2mm, which coupled with our existing software algorithms could be applied to 3D imaging and diagnostics of cancers throughout the body, including the cervical canal, ovaries, esophagus, etc.
TEAM
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TEAM
Dr. Joseph Carson, Ph.D is the Chief Technology Officer of Pensievision and a Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the College of Charleston. His primary field of expertise is in the development of novel imaging software and hardware, for astronomy and medical imaging applications. He has served as Principal Investigator for multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA. Dr. Carson is a Fulbright scholar, has published over 100 scientific papers, and was recognized both by TIME Magazine and CNN for his work in the imaging discovery of extrasolar planets
Dr. Dennis Carson, M.D is a professor of Medicine at UCSD, the Director Emeritus of the Moores Cancer Center, and the recent Director of the Shenzhen University Cancer Center (China). He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and is one of the world’s most respected cancer researchers. He developed the drug 2CDA (“Leustatin”) for treatment of hairy cell leukemia. Dr. Carson is founder of six biotech companies. He has published nearly 450 scientific papers and is an inventor on more than 60 U.S. and international patents
Tal Almog is President of Pensievision. He is a technology executive and entrepreneur with vast international experience, forming and leading teams to develop, implement, and support complex, business critical technology solutions to top Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Almog was recently Chief Operating Officer for Maintenancenet, a cloud- based software company acquired by Cisco. As a senior director at Cisco He led the Core Data Operations organization, including the data science team responsible for improving and automating Cisco Operations using AI. Mr. Almog is the recipient of the San Diego Magazine’s 2015 “Top Technology Executive” award
Benjamin Carson, Esq is the VP of business development at Pensievision, where he drives collaborations with NGOs and universities both domestically and internationally. He is a California business attorney, specializing in legal issues facing high-tech start-up companies, including: corporate law, intellectual property, employee contracts, and financing
Stanley McAfee is leading our software and engineering efforts. With a background in observational astrophysics and data statistics, he handles data calibration, implementation of adaptive mesh grid algorithms, and coding of machine learning modules for improved depth extraction.
Kevin Gainey co-leads the hardware development and testing for Pensievision. With a background in opto-electronic hardware calibration, hardware assembly, cad-based design, image analysis coding, and the maintenance and repair of a wide variety of analytical scientific instrumentation, he has worked as a leader in Pensievision’s instrument hardware development since 2018.
Bailey Williamson is a Research Associate at Pensievision, working on our software and in-lab experiments of our technology. With a background in statistical astrophysics and machine learning, he carries out statistical analysis of CervImage data and leads the in- lab collection of experimental data. Bailey also assists in the development of our image analysis software, particularly on image registration and feature extraction.
ADVISORS
Dr. Marleen Temmerman
Former Director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) at the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, the main the United Nations instrument for research in women’s health. Dr. Temmerman is currently Chair of the Department of OB-GYN and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women, Child and Adolescent Health at the Aga Khan University Hospital Nairobi and a full Professor of OB-GYN at Ghent University in Belgium. She has over 500 publications and books in the area of women’s health, and several awards and honors. In 2007, she was elected as Senator in the Belgian Parliament where she was member of the Committee on Social Affairs, and Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
Dr. Cheryl Saenz
A gynecologic oncologist specializing in gynecologic cancer care. She is a professor in the Department of Reproductive Medicine at UCSD, a member of the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG), the largest multi-institutional organization conducting research into the treatment and prevention of gynecologic cancers, and a member of the board of directors and the chair of the Education Committee for the Foundation for Women’s Cancer. Dr. Saenz is a recipient of the National Cancer Institute Cancer Clinical Investigator Leadership Award
Raymond W. McDaniel, Jr
Chief Executive Officer and President at Moody's Corporation, a $50B financial services company. McDaniel also serves on the board of directors of the Council for Economic Education, and the board of directors of the global publishing company John Wiley & Sons. Mr. McDaniel is also an investor in Pensievision
Lori R. Buchbinder
Principal of Buchbinder & Warren, a NYC real estate firm with a portfolio of a hundred buildings and commercial properties. Ms Buchbinder has extensive background and expertise in various aspects of business and management. Prior to her current position she practiced law for twenty-four years, most recent at Liz Claiborne Inc. as Vice President Deputy General Counsel, managing the company’s extensive trademark portfolio. Ms. Buchbinder is an investor in Pensievision
Dr. Sadik Esener
Professor of Medicine at OHSU and Director of the cancer research center. Previously he was Professor of Nano Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering at UCSD. Dr. Esener is the founder of 5 companies, led several DARPA sponsored Industry consortiums, and is Co-director of the Center for Nano-medicine and Engineering, Institute of Engineering
Gioia Messinger
Serial imaging technology entrepreneur. Founded LinkedObjects, Avaak (acquired by NETGEAR), MedSmart, Inc. (acquired by Kaiser Permanente), and SUMMIT Design Technologies, the firm that helped develop the first ingestible wireless Endoscopic Capsule (Pill-Cam) . Ms. Messinger is a mentor for the SD and L.A chapters of the Founder Institute; an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT); a visiting lecturer at the UCSD Rady School of Management, and serves on the Board of Directors of IQinVision and Fashioning Change
Dr. Ashok Krishnamoorthy
Chairman & CEO of Axalume, an optical interconnect startup. Formerly an Oracle Chief Technologist, Photonics, a Distinguished Engineer & Director at Sun Microsystems, President and CTO of AraLight, a Bell Labs spinout, and founding member of the Optical Data Networks research dept. at Bell Labs. He was awarded the 2005 ICO international prize in optics. His honors include the IEEE Distinguished Lecturer award, and Eta Kappa Nu’s outstanding engineer citation. He received his PhD from UCSD, an MS from USC, and a BS with honors from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Krishnamoorthy has contributed 300 technical publications, 8 book chapters, delivered over 100 talks at global conferences, and holds 200 US patents
Dr. Yu-Tsueng Liu
Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSD and Director of the Biomarker Laboratory in the Moores Cancer Center. He is the Principal Investigator of the National Institute of Health (NIH) grant that has supported the initial research that served as the basis for the 3D imaging system development
NEWS
Dr. Joe Carson, Pensievision's CTO, interviewes on NPR Radio
A second NPR Interview with Co-Founder Joe Carson
Pilot program results published in the Journal of Translational Medicine
NPR Interview with Co-Founder Joe Carson
STAY IN TOUCH
email: tal@pensievision.com
Tel: 858-255-4529
Address (Main)
10179 Huennekens St (#207)
San Diego CA 92121
455 Lydia Dr, Charleston, SC 29412
Address (R&D)
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