Combined medical image and data transmission with data storage, in which character/diagram information is transmitted with video data

• US 5,583,566 A
• Filed: 10/10/1995
• Issued: 12/10/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Company Ltd. (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Yajima, Akihiko, Kanno, Masahide
• Primary Examiner(s): Britton, Howard W.
• Application Number:
  US08/541,590
• Time in Patent Office: 427 Days
• Field of Search: 348/65, 348/68, 348/69, 348/70, 348/71, 348/72, 348/74, 348/75, 364/413.13, 600/109
• US Class Current: 348/72
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3045 superimposed on the recorded main signal, e.g. burn-in-time code
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3214 of a date
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3215 of a time or duration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3216 of a job size, e.g. a number of images, pages or copies, size of file, length of message
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3261 of multimedia information, e.g. a sound signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3269 of machine readable codes or marks, e.g. bar codes or glyphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission
• 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 23/66 Remote control of cameras or camera parts, e.g. by remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8233 the additional signal being a character code signal

Abstract

A medical instrument interfacing apparatus including a video instrument for outputting a video signal on which the pattern information of at least one of a character and device is superimposed, a video signal transmitting apparatus for transmitting the video signal of the video instrument, a pattern discriminating apparatus for extracting the pattern information from the video signal transmitted from the video signal transmitting apparatus and a controlled instrument in which the signal of the pattern discriminating apparatus is input.

Claims

1. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus comprising:

a video instrument for outputting a video signal on which pattern information is superimposed, said pattern information corresponding to character information and device control information;

said video instrument including an image information input means connected with an endoscope;

a video signal transmitting means for transmitting said video signal output by said video instrument;

a controlled apparatus in which operation is controlled in response to an input control signal; and

a pattern discriminating means for extracting said character information and said device control information from said video signal on which said pattern information is superimposed and for supplying a control signal to said controlled apparatus in response to said device control information, so as to control said controlled apparatus using said control signal in response to said device control information.

2. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said endoscope includes an electronic endoscope internally provided with a solid state imaging device.

3. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said endoscope includes a an externally fitted television camera for endoscopes and a camera controlling means for controlling said externally fitted television camera for endoscopes.

4. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said video instrument includes an image input means connected with an ultrasonic endoscope and converting an observed image by said ultrasonic endoscope to a video signal.

5. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said video instrument includes an image filing apparatus which reproduces a video signal.

6. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled apparatus is an image filing apparatus which is responsive to said input control signal to perform image filing, wherein said video signal comprises R, G, and B signals, and wherein said pattern discriminating means includes a controlling means for extracting the pattern information from at least one of said R, G and B signals of said video signal and outputting a control signal corresponding to said pattern information for controlling an image filing apparatus, and wherein said controlling means further includes an image filing controlling means for supplying said input control signal to said image filing apparatus for controlling image filing by said image filing apparatus.

7. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled apparatus is a VTR apparatus for recording of said video signal as a recorded image, said VTR apparatus being responsive to said input control signal to perform recording of said video signal, wherein said video signal comprises R, G, and B signals, and wherein said pattern discriminating means includes a controlling means for extracting the pattern information from at least one of said R, G and B signals of said video signal and outputting a control signal corresponding to said pattern information for controlling said VTR apparatus to record said video signal as a recorded image, and wherein said controlling means further includes a VTR controlling means for supplying said input control signal to said VTR apparatus for controlling said recording of said video signal by said VTR apparatus.

8. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled apparatus is an illumination controlling means which is responsive to said input control signal to produce illumination of the region viewed by said image information input means, wherein said video signal comprises R, G, and B signals, and wherein said pattern discriminating means includes a controlling means for extracting the pattern information from at least one of said R, G and B signals of said video signal and outputting a control signal corresponding to said pattern information for controlling illumination of a region viewed by said image information input means, and wherein said controlling means further includes an illumination controlling means for supplying said input control signal to said illumination controlling means for controlling said illumination of the region viewed by said image information input means by said illumination controlling means.

9. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled apparatus is a temperature apparatus controlling means which is responsive to said input control signal for controlling temperature of a chamber in which inspection by the endoscope is made, wherein said video signal comprises R, G, and B signals, and wherein said pattern discriminating means includes a controlling means for extracting the pattern information from at least one of said R, G and B signals of said video signal and outputting a control signal corresponding to said pattern information for controlling said temperature of said chamber in which inspection by the endoscope is made, and wherein said controlling means further includes a temperature apparatus controlling means for supplying said input control signal to said temperature apparatus controlling means for controlling said temperature of said chamber by said temperature apparatus controlling means.

10. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled instrument includes an image filing apparatus.

11. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled instrument includes a VTR apparatus.

12. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled instrument includes an illumination controlling apparatus.

13. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controlled instrument includes a temperature controlling apparatus.

14. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said video signal comprises R, G, and B signals, and wherein said pattern discriminating means includes a character signal output means for extracting the pattern information from at least one of said R, G and B signals of said video signal and outputting a character signal.

15. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising an image filing apparatus responsive to a character signal for performing image filing, wherein said character signal output means supplies said character signal to said image filing apparatus.

16. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said character signal output means supplies said character signal to said image information input means.

17. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said image information input means further includes a pattern information input means for inputting the pattern information of at least one of a character and device and an image synthesizing means for synthesizing the image information of said image input means and the pattern information of said pattern information input means with each other.

18. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said pattern information input means includes a device information input means for inputting device information by a switching means, wherein said device information indicates character size of characters in said character information.

19. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 17 wherein said pattern information input means includes a character input means for inputting a character information by an IC card.

20. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said video signal is composed of R, G, and B color signals, and said pattern information input means includes a character input means for inputting a character by a keyboard, and further comprising a character signal discriminating means for extracting pattern information from at least one of said R, G, and B color signals and outputting a character signal, and a device information input means for inputting device information by a switch, wherein said device information indicates character size of characters in said character information.

21. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus comprising:

an image input means for outputting a video signal representing an image viewed by a medical instrument;

a pattern generating means for generating pattern information representing character information and device control information;

a superimposing means receiving said video signal from said image input means, for outputting a modified video signal in which said pattern information generated by said pattern generating means is superimposed on said video signal output by said image input means;

a video signal transmitting means for transmitting said modified video signal output by said superimposing means;

a pattern discriminating means for extracting said pattern information from said modified video signal transmitted by said video signal transmitting means, so as to obtain said character information and said device control information from said video signal transmitted from said video signal transmitting means, said pattern discriminating means producing a character information output signal representing said character information and a device control output signal representing said device control information extracted from said modified video signal transmitted from said video signal transmitting means; and

a controlled apparatus which receives said device control output signal of said pattern discriminating means as a control signal for controlling operation of said controlled apparatus.

22. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus comprising:

an image input means for outputting a video signal representing an image viewed by a medical instrument;

a pattern generating means for generating pattern information representing character information and device control information;

a superimposing means receiving said video signal from said image input means, for outputting a modified video signal in which said pattern information generated by said pattern generating means is superimposed on said video signal output by said image input means;

a video signal transmitting means for transmitting said modified video signal output by said superimposing means;

a pattern discriminating means for extracting said pattern information from said modified video signal transmitted by said video signal transmitting means, so as to obtain said character information and said device control information from said video signal transmitted from said video signal transmitting means, said pattern discriminating means producing a character information output signal representing said character information and a device control output signal representing said device control information extracted from said modified video signal transmitted from said video signal transmitting means; and

an image filing apparatus which receives said device control output signal of said pattern discriminating means as a control signal for controlling operation of said image filing apparatus, and wherein said image filing apparatus produces as an output a video signal representing said image viewed by the medical instrument.

23. A medical instrument interfacing apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said image filing apparatus is responsive to said control signal to perform image filing, wherein said video signal is composed of R, G, and B color signals, and wherein said pattern generating means includes a character input means for inputting a character by a keyboard, and further comprising a character signal discriminating means for extracting pattern information from at least one of said R, G, and B color signals from said image filing apparatus and outputting a character signal, and a device information input means for inputting device information by a switch, wherein said device information indicates character size of characters in said character information.