Endoscope image pick-up apparatus

• US 20070173692A1
• Filed: 02/26/2007
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kaoru Kotouda, Masatoshi Homan, Motoo Azuma
• Original Assignee: Kaoru Kotouda, Masatoshi Homan, Motoo Azuma
• Inventors: Azuma, Motoo, Homan, Masatoshi, Kotouda, Kaoru
• Granted Patent: US 8,182,420 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/118
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00006 of control signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00016 using wireless means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00036 Means for power saving, e.g. sleeping mode
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/041 Capsule endoscopes for imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7232 involving compression of the physiological signal, e.g. to extend the signal recording period

Abstract

An image pick-up unit inserted in the body picks up an image of the body, and transmits by radio the image to an extra-corporeal unit which is arranged outside the body. The image pick-up unit includes an image pick-up portion capturing an image, a data transmitting portion for transmitting the image obtained by the image pick-up portion to the extra-corporeal unit at a plurality of transmitting ratios, a characteristic amount detecting portion for detecting a predetermined amount of characteristics based on the image, and a determining portion for determining a valid image based on an output from the characteristic amount detecting portion. The data transmitting portion controls the data transmitting ratio in accordance with the determining result of the determining portion.

Claims

1. An endoscope image pick-up apparatus comprising:

an image pick-up unit for insertion into the body;

an extra-corporeal unit for receiving an image captured by the image pick-up unit by radio transmission, the extra-corporeal unit being arranged outside the body;

an image pick-up device for picking up an image in the body, the image pick-up device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a data transmitting device for transmitting the image picked up by the image pick-up device to the extra-corporeal unit at a plurality of transmitting ratios, the data transmitting device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a characteristic amount detecting device for detecting a predetermined amount of characteristics based on the image picked up, the characteristic amount detecting device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a determining device for determining validity of the image based on an output from the characteristic amount detecting device;

an invalidity determining device for determining whether the image is invalid or valid based on an output from the characteristic amount detecting device; and

a target image determining device for determining whether or not the image is a target image based on an output from the characteristic amount detecting device, wherein

the determining device determines the image validity at a plurality of stages based on a combination of determining results of the invalidity determining device and the target image determining device, and the data transmitting device controls the data transmitting ratio in accordance with a determining result outputted by the determining device.

2. The endoscope image pick-up apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic amount detecting device comprises:

a color distribution detecting device for detecting the characteristic of a color distribution in the image; and

a color distribution comparing and calculating device for comparing and calculating the detected color distribution and a predetermined color distribution and for outputting an error of the color distribution as the characteristic amount.

3. The endoscope image pick-up apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic amount detecting device comprises a luminance average value calculating device for detecting an average value of luminance values in the image as the characteristic amount.

4. The endoscope image pick-up apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic amount detecting device comprises:

a luminance average value calculating device for detecting an average value of luminance values in the image;

a luminance average value storing device for storing the luminance average value; and

a luminance average value comparing and calculating device for comparing and calculating a past luminance average value stored in the luminance average value storing device and a current luminance average value and for outputting a change amount of the luminance average value as the characteristic amount.

5. The endoscope image pick-up apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic amount detecting device comprises:

an image storing device for storing the picked-up image; and

an image data difference calculating device for calculating a difference between past image data stored in the image storing device and current image data and for outputting a calculated difference as the characteristic amount.

6. An endoscope image pick-up apparatus comprising:

an image pick-up unit for insertion into the body;

an extra-corporeal unit for receiving an image captured by the image pick-up unit by radio transmission the extra-corporeal unit being arranged outside the body;

an image pick-up device for picking up an image in the body, the image pick-up device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a compressing device for compressing the image obtained by the image pick-up device, the compressing device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a data transmitting device for transmitting the data compressed by the compressing device to the extra-corporeal unit at a plurality of transmitting ratios, the data transmitting device being provided in the image pick-up unit; and

a determining device for determining validity of the image by comparing the data size compressed by the compressing device with a predetermined threshold value, the determining device being provided in the image pick-up unit, wherein

the data transmitting device controls the data transmitting ratio in accordance with a determining result outputted by the determining device.

7. The endoscope image pick-up apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image pick-up unit comprises a command receiving device for receiving a plurality of types of commands from the extra-corporeal unit;

and

when the command receiving device has received a predetermined command, the image pick-up unit controls the data transmitting ratio of the data transmitting device based on the predetermined command, and when the command receiving device has received another command differing from the predetermined command, the image pick-up unit invalidates the control of the data transmitting ratio based on the another command.

8. An endoscope image pick-up apparatus comprising:

an image pick-up unit for insertion into the body;

an extra-corporeal unit for receiving an image captured by the image pick-up unit by radio transmission, the extra-corporeal unit being arranged outside the body;

an image pick-up device for picking up an image in the body, the image pick-up device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a compressing device for compressing the image obtained by the image pick-up device, the compressing device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a data transmitting device for transmitting the data compressed by the compressing device to the extra-corporeal unit at a plurality of transmitting ratios, the data transmitting device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a compressed data size storing device for storing the data size compressed by the compressing device, the compressed data size storing device being provided in the image pick-up unit;

a compressed data-size difference calculating device for calculating a difference between a past compressed data size stored in the compressed data size storing device and a current compressed data size, the compressed data-size difference calculating device being provided in the image pick-up unit; and

a determining device for comparing the difference in the compressed data size with a predetermined threshold value and for determining whether or not the image is valid, the determining device being provided in the image pick-up unit,

wherein the data transmitting device controls a data transmitting ratio in accordance with a determining result outputted by the determining device.

9. The endoscope image pick-up apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the image pick-up unit comprises a command receiving device for receiving a plurality of types of commands from the extra-corporeal unit;

and

when the command receiving device has received a predetermined command, the image pick-up unit controls the data transmitting ratio of the data transmitting device based on the predetermined command, and when the command receiving device has received another command differing from the predetermined command, the image pick-up unit invalidates the control of the data transmitting ratio based on the another command.