ELECTRONIC ENDOSCOPE APPARATUS DRIVING LIGHT SHIELDING PLATE

• US 20030060683A1
• Filed: 09/09/2002
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fuji Photo Optical Co. Ltd (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Photo Optical Co. Ltd (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Abe, Kazunori, Okada, Fujio
• Granted Patent: US 6,540,671 B1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/180
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00096 Optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/042 characterised by a proximal camera, e.g. a CCD camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/555 for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/74 by influencing the scene brightness using illuminating means

Abstract

There is provided a light shielding plate to shield light from a light source lamp, and this light shielding plate is rotated and drived by a light shielding plate drive circuit, and a charge stored in a CCD for a period of, for example, 20H at a start of an effective period J of a vertical scanning period, is discharged and this is set as a non-operating period and a drive control over the light shielding plate for a period of 40.5H which is a sum of this non-operating period and a blanking period B (20.5H) is performed. This provides an adequate margin of time for controlling the light shielding plate at starting and stopping times and makes the drive control easier.

Claims

1. An electronic endoscope apparatus that drives a light shielding plate, comprising:

an image pickup element that captures an image of an object under observation illuminated by light source light;

a light shielding plate that shields said light source light for a predetermined period to read all pixel signals obtained by this image pickup element;

an image pickup element drive circuit that sets a non-operating period so that charge stored by said image pickup element is discharged during a predetermined period within an effective period following a blanking period of a vertical scanning period and reads and controls the charge stored in the effective period except this non-operating period as image pickup signals; and

a light shielding plate drive circuit that performs drive control over said light shielding plate during a period including the non-operating period set by this image pickup element drive circuit.

2. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a moving image is formed, the charge stored is read from said image pickup element every 1 vertical scanning period as field signals without driving said light shielding plate and, when a still image is formed, said light shielding plate is driven and the charge of all pixels stored through exposure within a 1 vertical scanning period is read as frame signals.

3. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein electronic shutter control is performed for adjusting a time of discharging the stored charge following the control of said non-operating period to thereby control an exposure time.