Intrabody introduced device and medical device

• US 20060004253A1
• Filed: 05/24/2005
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Shigemori, Toshiaki, Mori, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,704,204 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/109
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/041 Capsule endoscopes for imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0676 at distal tip of an endoscope
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0684 using light emitting diodes [LED]

Abstract

In transmitting images picked up by an intrabody introduced device to outside a test body, synchronizing signals of the image signal are set to signal patterns in the same high-frequency band as for the image signal and not used for the image signal. This enables a receiver to stably binarize the synchronizing signal and thus to acquire favorable image signal. For example, in a clipping circuit provided in a signal processing circuit in a capsule type endoscope (an example of an intrabody introduced device), image information of a high-intensity portion is clipped out of image information acquired by an imaging section and a pattern generation circuit allocates signal patterns within the clipped intensity range as horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals.

Claims

1. An intrabody introduced device introduced into a test body to acquire information on an inside of the test body, the intrabody introduced device comprising:

a lighting section for emitting an illumination light for illuminating the inside of the test body;

an imaging section for acquiring image information on the inside of the test body illuminated by the lighting section;

a first allocating section for allocating a part of a signal level in the image information acquired by the imaging section to a synchronizing signal; and

a radio transmission section for wirelessly transmitting the synchronizing signal allocated by the first allocating section and the image information.

2. The intrabody introduced device according to claim 1, wherein the first allocating section comprises:

a clipping section for clipping at least a part of the signal level in the image information acquired by the imaging section; and

a setting section for setting the signal level clipped by the clipping section to the synchronizing signal.

3. The intrabody introduced device according to claim 1, wherein the first allocating section allocates a part of the signal level in the image information acquired by the imaging section to the synchronizing signal and allocates image information of the part of the signal level to another signal level.

4. The intrabody introduced device according to claim 3, wherein the first allocating section includes:

a clipping section for clipping at least a part of the signal level in the image information acquired by the imaging section;

a first converting section for converting the signal level of a specific part of the image information to the signal level clipped by the clipping section; and

a setting section for setting the signal level of the specific part of the image information as the synchronizing signal.

5. A medical device comprising an intrabody introduced device introduced into a test body to acquire information on an inside of the test body and a receiver capable of receiving a radio signal transmitted from the intrabody introduced device outside the test body, wherein:

the intrabody introduced device comprises;

a lighting section for emitting an illumination light for illuminating the inside of the test body;

an imaging section for acquiring image information on the inside of the test body illuminated by the lighting section;

a first allocating section for allocating a part of a signal level in the image information acquired by the imaging section to a synchronizing signal and allocating image information of the part of the signal level to another signal level; and

a radio transmission section for wirelessly transmitting the synchronizing signal allocated by the first allocating section and the image information; and

the receiver includes;

a receiving section for receiving the radio signal wirelessly transmitted from the radio transmission section;

an extracting section for extracting the synchronizing signal from the received radio signal; and

a second allocating section for allocating the another signal level allocated by the first allocating section to the signal level of the image information.

6. The medical device according to claim 5, wherein:

the first allocating section includes;

a clipping section for clipping at least a part of signal level in the image information acquired by the imaging section;

a first converting section for converting signal levels of a specific part of the image information to the signal level clipped by the clipping section; and

a setting section for setting the signal level of the specific part of the image information to the synchronizing signal; and

the second allocating section converts the signal level converted by the first converting section to the original signal level of the image information.

7. A method of outputting image signals from an intrabody introduced device, comprising the steps of:

converting an image signal picked up by the intrabody introduced device so as to put intensity information within a given range; and

outputting a synchronizing signal of the image signal having intensity information outside the given range and having the same frequency band as for the image signals together with the image signal.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the conversion is performed by clipping the image signal.