Medical system

• US 8,038,600 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2005
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Kawano, Hironao, Uchiyama, Akio, Takizawa, Hironobu, Tanaka, Shinsuke, Aoki, Isao
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, PHILIP ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US11/663,124
• Publication Number:
  US 20070299301A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,153 Days
• Field of Search: 600/109, 600/117, 600/118, 600/160
• US Class Current: 600/118
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00016 using wireless means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0008 characterised by distal tip features
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00156 using self propulsion
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00158 using magnetic field
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/041 Capsule endoscopes for imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/273 for the upper alimentary canal, e.g. oesophagoscopes, gastroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 34/73 Manipulators for magnetic surgery
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/062 using magnetic field
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/073 Intestinal transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7232 involving compression of the physiological signal, e.g. to extend the signal recording period

Abstract

A medical system includes: a medical device to be inserted into the body cavity; a rotating device for the medical device for rotating the medical device around the insertion axis; an image pickup device provided to the medical device; and an image capturing timing detection device for detecting a signal regarding image capturing timing performed by the image pickup device. Furthermore, the medical system includes: a rotating angle acquisition device for acquiring the rotating angle of the rotating device for the medical device regarding the image capturing timing in response to the output of the image capturing timing detection device; and an image acquisition device for performing rotation processing for the image captured by the image pickup device based upon the information regarding the rotating angle acquired by the rotating angle acquisition device, thereby acquiring the image subjected to a rotation processing.

Claims

1. A medical system comprising:

a medical device to be inserted into a body cavity;

a rotating device for the medical device for rotating the medical device around an insertion axis;

an image pickup device provided to the medical device;

an image capturing timing detection device for detecting an image capturing timing signal with respect to image capturing timing performed by the image pickup device;

a rotating angle acquisition device for acquiring rotating angle information of the rotating device for the medical device with respect to the image capturing timing in response to the output of the image capturing timing detection device; and

an image acquisition device for performing rotation processing so as to rotate an image captured by the image pickup device based upon the rotating angle information acquired by the rotating angle acquisition device, thereby obtaining the image subjected to the rotation processing, wherein

the rotating angle acquisition device acquires the rotating angle of the rotational magnetic field with respect to a point in time after a delay time has elapsed from reception of output of the image capturing timing detection device up to image capturing performed by the image pickup device.

2. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the medical device includes a propelling force generating structure which is provided to the medical device, for generating propelling force with respect to the medical device by rotation of the medical device.

3. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup device has an optical axis parallel to an axis direction of the insertion axis.

4. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the rotating device for the medical device comprises:

a magnetic field generating device installed outside of a body for generating a rotational magnetic field;

a magnet, which is provided to the medical device and which is placed with magnetic poles of N-pole and S-pole being along a direction orthogonal to an axis direction of the insertion axis, for generating torque for rotating the medical device by interaction with the rotational magnetic field generated by the magnetic field generating device; and

a magnetic field control device installed outside of the body for controlling the rotational magnetic field generated by the magnetic field generating device.

5. A medical system according to claim 4, wherein the upper direction of the image pickup device matches direction of the magnetic poles of the magnet.

6. A medical system according to claim 4, wherein the upper direction of the image pickup device and direction of the magnetic poles of the magnet are arranged with a predetermined fixed angle.

7. A medical system according to claim 4, wherein the image acquisition device performs the rotation processing with the angle between the upper direction of the image pickup device and the magnetic direction of the magnet as a reference angle.

8. A medical system according to claim 4, further including an operation input device for inputting the angle between the upper direction of the image pickup device and the magnetic direction of the magnet,

wherein the image acquisition device performs the rotation processing with the angle input from the operation input device as a reference angle.

9. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the rotating device for the medical device comprises:

a motor for driving so as to rotate the medical device; and

an operation input device which allows change in the rotational speed of the motor.

10. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the image acquisition device has a function for transmitting the image capturing timing signal to the image capturing timing detection device, as well as a function for transmitting an image capturing request signal to the image pickup device.

11. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the medical device includes an image capturing timing controller for controlling the image capturing timing,

and wherein the image pickup device transmits image data to the image acquisition device as well as performing image capturing in response to a signal received from the image capturing timing controller,

and wherein the image capturing timing detection device detects the start of transmission of the image data by the image pickup device, as the image capturing timing.

12. A medical system according to claim 11, wherein the image capturing timing controller appends information regarding the image capturing timing to the image data to be transmitted.

13. A medical system according to claim 11, wherein the image capturing timing controller controls so as to maintain the constant interval between the time of image capturing and the time of the start of transmission of the image data.

14. A medical system according to claim 11, wherein the image capturing timing controller controls such that the time of image capturing matches the time of the start of image data transmission.

15. A medical system according to claim 1, further including a display device for displaying an image subjected to rotation processing by the image acquisition device, the rotation processing being for correcting the captured image by the rotating angle by which the medical device is rotated using the rotational magnetic field.

16. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the medical device is a capsule endoscope including an internal wireless communication device for performing wireless communication from inside a body to outside the body,

and wherein the medical system includes an external wireless communication device connected to the image acquisition device, for performing wireless communication from outside a body to inside the body, and performs wireless communication between the internal wireless communication device and the external wireless communication device.

17. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the medical device includes a data compression device for performing compression processing for compressing data of the image into compressed data,

and wherein the compressed data compressed by the data compression device is transmitted to the image acquisition device,

and wherein the image acquisition device includes a data decompression device for performing decompression processing for the compressed data.

18. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the rotating device for the medical device includes a storage device for storing past rotating angles acquired in past image capturing which is prior to a time of the image capturingperformed by the image pickup device,

and wherein the rotating angle acquisition device refers to the past rotating angles when performing rotation processing on an image captured in the past.

19. A medical system according to claim 18, wherein the rotating angle acquisition device acquires the rotating angle in the past by the time corresponding to a period during which the image capturing timing detection device detected the signal.

20. A medical system according to claim 18 wherein the storage device stores the rotating angle information of the rotating device for the medical device in a form correlated with information regarding the point in time.

21. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein the image acquisition device acquires the amount of delay in rotation following of the medical device,

and wherein the rotation processing is performed so as to correct for the amount of delay in rotation following.

22. A medical system according to claim 1, further including a plurality of image pickup devices,

wherein the image acquisition device performs rotation processing for the image captured by each of the plurality of image pickup devices.

23. A medical system according to claim 22, wherein at least two of the image pickup devices have viewing directions different from each other.

24. A medical system according to claim 23, wherein at least two of the image pickup devices have viewing directions approximately parallel to the insertion axis.

25. A medical system according to claim 22, wherein the image acquisition device performs different rotation processing for images captured by different image pickup devices, corresponding to each image pickup device.

26. A medical system according to claim 22, further including a display device for displaying the images, captured by the image pickup devices, separately for each image pickup device.

27. A medical system according to claim 1, wherein:

the image pickup device comprises first and second image pickup devices for picking up images in directions opposite to each other; and

the image acquisition device performs processing to rotate, based on information regarding a rotating angle acquired by the rotating angle acquisition device, an image picked up by the first image pickup device in a first rotating angle corresponding to the acquired rotating angle, and performs processing to rotate an image picked up by the second image pickup device in a second rotating angle obtained by multiplying the first rotating angle by minus one.

28. A medical system according to claim 27, further comprising a display device for displaying only an image picked up by one of the first and second image pickup devices, the one of the devices picking up an image in a forward direction in the body cavity.

29. A medical system according to claim 27, further comprising a display device for displaying first and second images respectively picked up by the first and second image pickup devices, in sizes different from each other.

30. A medical system according to claim 17, wherein the medical device comprises an angular speed detecting device for detecting an angular speed, and the rotating angle acquisition device acquires the rotating angle on the basis of an integrated value of an output of the angular speed detecting device.