Endoscope image pick-up apparatus

• US 8,182,420 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2007
• Issued: 05/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Homan, Masatoshi, Kotouda, Kaoru, Azuma, Motoo
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, PHILIP ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US11/710,809
• Publication Number:
  US 20070173692A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,912 Days
• Field of Search: 600/103, 600/109, 600117-118, 600/160
• US Class Current: 600/160
• 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 regarding presence or absence of an affected part or a similar matter of the affected part 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;

an invalidity determining device for determining whether the image is invalid or valid based on a characteristic amount regarding invalidity of the image by presence of white compression or black compression in the image, or no change in image; and

a target image determining device for determining whether or not the image is a target image including the affected part or the similar matter of the affected part 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. A method of radio transmission of images picked up by an image pick-up unit for insertion into a body to an extra-corporeal unit arranged outside the body, the method comprising:

an image pick-up step for picking up an image in the body by an image pick-up device provided in the image pick-up unit;

a data transmission step for transmitting the image picked up in the image pick-up step to the extra-corporeal unit at a plurality of transmitting ratios;

a characteristic amount detection step for detecting a predetermined amount of characteristics regarding presence or absence of an affected part or a similar matter of the affected part based on the image picked up;

a determination step for determining validity of the image;

an invalidity determination step for determining whether the image is invalid or valid based on a characteristic amount regarding invalidity of the image by presence of white compression or black compression in the image, or no change in image; and

a target image determination step for determining whether or not the image is a target image including the affected part or the similar matter of the affected part based on the predetermined amount of characteristics detected by the characteristic amount detection step,

wherein the determination step determines the image validity at a plurality of stages based on a combination of determining results of the invalidity determination step and the target image determination step, and the data transmission step controls the data transmitting ratio in accordance with a determining result of the determination step.