Endoscope apparatus
First Claim
1. An endoscope apparatus comprising:
- an endoscope including and elongated inserting section having an illumination window and an observation window at a distal end portion thereof, illuminating means for allowing illumination light to emerge from said illumination window, imaging means for forming an optical image of an object upon receiving light which is radiated through said observation window after being reflected from said object, and an ultrasonic probe disposed at said distal end portion of said inserting and obtaining an ultrasonic image of said object;
optical-image signal processing means for signal processing for said imaging mean and for generating a video signal of said optical image, said optical-image signal processing means having an optical image memory means for storing said optical image;
ultrasonic-image signal processing means for processing a signal for said ultrasonic probe and for generating a video signal of said ultrasonic image, said ultrasonic-image signal processing means having an ultrasonic image memory means for storing said ultrasonic image; and
memory control means for controlling writing and reading by said optical image memory means and said ultrasonic image memory means, for simultaneously outputting a video signal for displaying a moving ultrasonic image and a video signal for displaying a still optical image when a moving ultrasonic image is viewed and for simultaneously outputting a video signal for displaying a moving optical image and a video signal for displaying a still ultrasonic image when a moving optical is viewed.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An endoscope comprises an elongated inserting section having an illumination window and an observation window at a distal end portion thereof, an imaging device for forming an optical image of an object upon receiving light reflected from the object radiated through the observation window, and an ultrasonic probe disposed at the distal end portion of the inserting section and adapted to obtain an ultrasonic image of the object. A signal processing apparatus to which the endoscope is connected comprises: an optical-image signal processing device adapted to effect signal processing for the imaging device and to generate a video signal of the optical image and having an optical image memory device for storing the optical image, an ultrasonic-image signal processing device adapted to effect signal processing for the ultrasonic probe and to generate a video signal of the ultrasonic image and having an ultrasonic image memory device for storing the ultrasonic image, and a memory device control device which is adapted to control writing and reading by the optical image memory device and the ultrasonic image memory device, and which, when a moving ultrasonic image is viewed, makes it possible to display a still optical image, and, when a moving optical image is viewed, makes it possible to display a still ultrasonic image.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. An endoscope apparatus comprising:
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an endoscope including and elongated inserting section having an illumination window and an observation window at a distal end portion thereof, illuminating means for allowing illumination light to emerge from said illumination window, imaging means for forming an optical image of an object upon receiving light which is radiated through said observation window after being reflected from said object, and an ultrasonic probe disposed at said distal end portion of said inserting and obtaining an ultrasonic image of said object; optical-image signal processing means for signal processing for said imaging mean and for generating a video signal of said optical image, said optical-image signal processing means having an optical image memory means for storing said optical image; ultrasonic-image signal processing means for processing a signal for said ultrasonic probe and for generating a video signal of said ultrasonic image, said ultrasonic-image signal processing means having an ultrasonic image memory means for storing said ultrasonic image; and memory control means for controlling writing and reading by said optical image memory means and said ultrasonic image memory means, for simultaneously outputting a video signal for displaying a moving ultrasonic image and a video signal for displaying a still optical image when a moving ultrasonic image is viewed and for simultaneously outputting a video signal for displaying a moving optical image and a video signal for displaying a still ultrasonic image when a moving optical is viewed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A signal processing apparatus for use in an endoscope having imaging means and an ultrasonic probe and connected to said endoscope, and said apparatus comprising:
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optical-image signal processing means for signal processing for said imaging means for obtaining an optical image and for generating a video signal of said optical image, said optical-image signal processing means having an optical image memory means for storing said optical image; ultrasonic-image signal processing means for signal processing for said ultrasonic probe for obtaining an ultrasonic image and for generating a video signal of said ultrasonic image, said ultrasonic-image signal processing means having an ultrasonic image means for storing said ultrasonic image; and memory control means for controlling writing and reading by said optical imagae memory means and ultrasonic image memory means, for simultaneously outputting a video signal for displaying a moving ultrasonic image and a video signal for displaying a still optical image when a moving ultrasonic image is viewed and for simultaneously outputting a video signal for displaying a moving optical image and a video signal for displaying a still ultrasonic image when a moving optical is viewed. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A signal processing apparatus for use in an endoscope having imaging means and an ultrasonic probe and connected to said endoscope, said apparatus comprising:
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optical-image signal processing means for signal processing for said imaging means for obtaining an optical image and for generating a video signal of said optical image, said optical image signal processing means having an optical image memory means for storing said optical image; ultrasonic-image signal processing means for signal processing for said ultrasonic probe for obtaining an ultrasonic image and for generating a video signal of said ultrasonic image, said ultrasonic-image signal processing means having an ultrasonic image memory means for storing said ultrasonic image; and memory control means for controlling writing and reading by said optical image memory means and said ultrasonic image memory means and for displaying a still optical image and a still ultrasonic image.
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Specification