In four years, Hikvision Huiying not only took root, but also came up with a high-end line of endoscopes
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The author | Liu Haitao
Editor| Li Yuchen
March 12, Arbor Day.
On this day, Hikvision Huiying released a new product for medical vision - MIK5 endoscopic system solution.
MIK5 includes 4K intelligent white light endoscope image processing motherboard and camera solution, 4K intelligent fluorescent endoscope image processing motherboard and 4K autofocus fluorescent camera, intelligent 3D endoscopic image processing motherboard and integrated 3D endoscope, optical mirror, light source and other hardware; and iDesigner custom OSD software, iTest image testing software and iPlayer intelligent playback software composed of a complete set of system solutions.
Among them, the comprehensive upgrade of processing power is the biggest feature of MIK5. Upgraded from the previous 4-core heterogeneous platform to 8-core, the processing power of the entire platform ISP is 3 times that of the previous one, and the processing power of the master scheduling is more than 5 times that of the previous one.
In addition, the platform has 4 core AI operations that can support 10TOPS neural network convolutional acceleration performance. The intelligent ISP algorithm and the intelligent auxiliary recognition algorithm make the MIK5 the first product to apply AI technology in the field of hard mirror camera systems.
Shen Chuan, CEO of Huiying Technology, said: Hikvision Huiying will combine Hikvision's technological accumulation over the years, grasp the opportunity of progress in the AI era, and combine AI technology with endoscopic systems to improve medical efficiency and ensure medical safety. Serving public health is our original intention, let health see more is our mission, Hikvision Huiying will continue to use persistence and enthusiasm to cast hard power, to contribute to the medical industry.
As a "new player", how did Hikvision Enter the Medical Endoscopy Industry?
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A medical technology company with "vision" as its advantage
Hikvision Huiying was officially established in March 2018, and before starting to do the endoscopy field, it had done a market research:
On the one hand, there are fewer endoscopy system solution manufacturers, head endoscopy manufacturers and traditional image upstream manufacturers such as Sony, Panasonic, etc. Cooperation, most endoscope manufacturers use security video board solutions, the entire endoscopy industry needs more professional video technology solution providers;
On the other hand, the endoscopic industry is still in a period of development. According to the statistics of China Medical Device Association, the average annual growth rate of the domestic speculum market will remain at about 20%, and the development space and potential are very impressive.
2017 is the year of the Red Sea for medical entrepreneurship. At that time, the concepts of medical AI and Internet medical treatment were quite popular. Many projects can get a considerable amount of financing by running a model with open source algorithms and open databases.
From the perspective of the difficulty of entering the game, Hikvision Huiying, which has many years of experience in the research and development of computer vision software and hardware, can easily join this camp.
At the same time, starting from its own advantages, Hikvision Huiying pays more attention to hardware products as the carrier, nests the value of algorithms and services with hardware, and finally outputs a complete set of solutions. The medical foothold of this style of play is the endoscopic field.
2
Nibble down the hard bones of the "endoscope"
Prior to joining the Hikvision team, He Guanglin, Director of Vision Products at Hikvision Medical, spent many years exploring the medical industry.
She said: "At that time, end users had higher and higher requirements for endoscopic video image technology, industry regulations were becoming more and more perfect, and there was very little choice in the upstream of the supply chain, making it difficult for domestic startups to enter, which was a real hard bone."
At that time, the investigation of Hikvision Huiying's team found that the playing style of all enterprises in the field of hard tube endoscopy was mainly divided into three categories:
First, the layout of minimally invasive surgical all-round solutions, endoscopic camera systems, surgical instruments, energy platforms in an all-round layout;
The second is to focus on the technology research and development of endoscopes, both its own brand and supplier, providing hardware and customized services, for example, Xueli provides 3D endoscopic camera systems for da Vinci surgical robots.
Third, do pure technology and hardware supplier positioning, do not do independent products, only provide image processing motherboards and camera modules.
"For Hikvision Huiying, which has entered the endoscopy industry, technology is our advantage, and the team has also positioned the third path as its own development direction to continue to empower the development of medical technology."
Based on the accumulation of computer vision technology, after the establishment of Hikvision Huiying team, it gradually found out the complete technical link of medical 4K endoscopic camera system acquisition, transmission, processing and display.
At the end of 2018, the team launched 4K image processing motherboard and endoscopic camera products;
Subsequently, the first self-developed intelligent endoscopic system MIK3 with BOTH HD and 4K performance and ISP algorithm was launched, which included a 4-core heterogeneous acceleration platform, one-click autofocus, and targeted self-developed advanced algorithms such as dark area improvement and fog removal, which also became one of the most popular products of Hikvision Huiying.
However, even if there was a good product launch, the team was still faced with problems such as how the product would enter the market and whether it could get a registration certificate.
"As a 'new player', Hikvision Huiying did not attract the attention of the industry at that time."
In He Guanglin's own words, many medical customers and endoscopy manufacturers initially did not know who Hikvision Huiying was, and their understanding of MIK3 products and willingness to cooperate were even lower.
Therefore, in the second year after the establishment of Hikvision Huiying, He Guanglin and Hikvision Huiying team thought about the most product highlights and differentiation.
They took the lead in proposing a new CDMO (Custom R&D and Production Organization, mainly used in the field of medicine) model, which not only provides hardware, but also continues to provide technical support services for subsequent integration optimization testing and registration certification for partners.
"We believe that this model is just needed by endoscopic integration companies. On the one hand, there are only 13 designated medical device inspection agencies in the country, the queue situation is very serious, many enterprises pay out of their own pocket to find a third-party inspection agency for counseling, and then sent to the inspection institute, otherwise there is an accident in the inspection process, which will lead to the registration cycle being infinitely lengthened. ”
Therefore, while purchasing accessories, if you can provide assistance to endoscope manufacturers in terms of algorithms, software, optical hardware integration and registration certification interpretation, it will have more important significance.
Based on the idea of CDMO, Hikvision Huiying quickly harvested the first batch of seed customers.
In November 2019, Hikvision Huiying assisted customers to obtain the first 4K camera system registration certificate in Zhejiang Province based on MIK3 products, and obtained the first access certificate to enter the market.
From 2019 to 2020, the number of customer transactions in Hikvision's MIK3 product line increased by more than 7 times.
3
MIK5, Hikvision's sword out of its sheath
In the next two or three years, although Hikvision Huiying has successfully promoted the first generation of mik3 to the market application stage, the internal team also saw that such a product line is still too thin.
He Guanglin said, "MIK3 research and development time is very short, many experiences and solutions are directly borrowed from the past video accumulation, compared to the head of foreign companies have been iterating decades of products, our gap is still more obvious." ”
Because it is the first product, MIK3 more or less has the nature of testing the water. Therefore, Hikvision Huiying still has many software and hardware resources and strengths that have not been fully demonstrated.
The ball is pressed into the water, and there is always a moment to emerge.
Therefore, while promoting THE EXPANSION OF MIK3 through the mature channels of partners, Hikvision Huiying has simultaneously launched an attempt to impact high-end product technology, which is mainly divided into two ways: algorithm and hardware.
First, there is the algorithm.
In 2019, in the competition hosted by ISBI, the world's top medical imaging conference, Hikvision Huiying sent its own team to participate in the competition. Compared to the competition itself, one of the useful messages the team received was that the industry paid very little attention to AI applications in the field of endoscopy in minimally invasive surgery.
After the competition, hikvision's team began to discuss the entry point in minimally invasive surgery. To this end, the team visited Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Zhejiang Second And other hospitals, and found their common pain points.
For example, surgical foreign body residues that make the surgeon sensitive, including gauze, yarn balls, stitches, hemostatic forceps, and so on.
Taking laparoscopic pancreatic surgery as an example, the amount of surgical bleeding is large, the anatomical level is rich, and various hemostatic materials are often used, and the gauze during surgery is often difficult to identify due to blood immersion or small exposure area, which often leads to prolonged surgical time, the occurrence of adverse consequences such as gauze omission, and more serious foreign body masses, which are medically called "gauze tumors".
"Based on this need, we began to discuss internally, the gauze image features are more obvious, AI also has significant advantages in object recognition, which has been verified in many scenarios."
In early 2020, Hikvision Huiying's team and the basic surgery team of Peking Union Medical College Hospital collaborated to verify the feasibility of the idea of intelligent gauze recognition. Since then, the first application of intelligent auxiliary gauze recognition in the field of endoscopic hard mirrors has been developed.
Second, there is the hardware.
Different from the rapid prototyping of MIK3 hardware, Hikvision Huiying spends a lot of time in hospitals, front-line departments, and partners to understand the pain points encountered in the clinical use process and the problems that have not been solved.
Among them, they not only gained the need for more accurate auto exposure, autofocus, multi-spectral fusion, and anti-electric knife interference, but also felt the voice of doubt.
He Guanglin said, "At that time, we visited and asked doctors, what is the endoscopic equipment that can be improved, and some doctors will say, 'I also told many companies about these needs, but after the feedback, many of them did not have follow-up actions, and they stopped. ’”
In order to allow more doctors to see the domestic strength, Hikvision Huiying has set up a special product development team - medical vision products department.
The product team not only responds quickly to the clinical needs of partners, but also focuses on cutting-edge research and development and productization of medical-engineering integration projects.
In December 2020, Hikvision successfully developed an autofocus camera with a maximum speed of 0.5 seconds.
In December 2021, they completed the development of three major product lines of endoscopic imaging products, 4K intelligent white light, 4K intelligent fluorescence and intelligent 3D.
According to He Guanglin, at present, the MIK5 solution has completed the product integration in several endoscopic companies and entered the registration approval process.
4
epilogue
When the new product was released on March 12, Shen Chuan, CEO of Huiying Technology, specifically mentioned the Arbor Day and the concept of trees: "Four years ago, Hikvision Huiying chose the day of Arbor Day. Nowadays, Hikvision Huiying has gradually taken root in the high-barrier medical field, begun to blossom and scatter, ushering in a broader space. ”
Before this, during the development of Hikvision's laparoscopic pancreatic surgery products, a doctor also sincerely lamented: "The era of intelligent endoscopy will begin because of this piece of sabra." ”
In the hands of this medically-averse team, a new prologue to the endoscopic industry has also begun.
END