Radiation image capturing device, and radiation image capturing system

• US 8,461,544 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2010
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Iwakiri, Naoto, Ohta, Yasunori, Yoshida, Futoshi, Nakatsugawa, Haruyasu, Nishino, Naoyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Hannaher, Constantine
• Application Number:
  US12/868,755
• Publication Number:
  US 20110073767A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 250/370.09
• US Class Current: 250/370.09
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 42/02 using X-rays
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 42/04 Holders for X-ray films

Abstract

A radiation image capturing device has: a radiation image capturing section that is adapted to image capturing in a selected operation mode, an image processing section, a power supply section that supplies electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section, a connection portion that electrically connects to at least one of a power supply device or an image processing device, and a control section. The control section effects control such that, in a case in which an operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more is selected and the power supply device is connected to the connection portion, the power supply device is used instead of the power supply section, and, in a case in which an operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more is selected and the image processing device is connected to the connection portion, the image processing device is used instead of the image processing section.

Claims

1. A radiation image capturing device comprising:

a radiation image capturing section that is adapted to capture, in an operation mode selected from among a plurality of operation modes that are determined in advance, a radiation image expressed by radiation that has passed through a subject of image capturing;

an image processing section that carries out predetermined image processing on image information obtained by image capturing by the radiation image capturing section;

a power supply section that supplies electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section;

a connection portion that electrically connects to a power supply device, that is adapted to supply electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section, an image processing device, that carries out a same type of image processing as the image processing section, or any combination thereof; and

a control section that effects control such that, in a case in which an operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more has been selected as the operation mode and the power supply device is connected to the connection portion, the power supply device is used instead of the power supply section, and, in a case in which an operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more has been selected as the operation mode and the image processing device is connected to the connection portion, the image processing device is used instead of the image processing section.

2. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more is an operation mode, in which an image capturing speed by the radiation image capturing section is greater than or equal to a predetermined image capturing speed, an operation mode in which a transfer speed of the image information is greater than or equal to a predetermined transfer speed, or any combination thereof.

3. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, further comprising a detecting section that detects that the power supply device, the image processing device, or any combination thereof, is connected to the connection portion, wherein the control section effects control such that, in a case in which the detecting section detects that the power supply device is connected to the connection portion, the power supply device is used instead of the power supply section, and, in a case in which the detecting section detects that the image processing device is connected to the connection portion, the image processing device is used instead of the image processing section.

4. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, wherein, in a case in which the control section has effected control such that the power supply device the image processing device, or any combination thereof, connected to the connection portion is used, the control section effects control so as to reduce, as compared with before control, or so as to stop, frequency of clock signals for synchronous control, electric power for driving, or any combination thereof, which are supplied to the image processing section.

5. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, further comprising a transmitting section that, in a case in which neither the power supply device nor the image processing device is connected to the connection portion, wirelessly transmits the image information, that has been subjected to the image processing by the image processing section, to an external device.

6. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the power supply section has a battery, and a converting section that converts voltage of electric power supplied from the battery into voltages that are used at a destination of supply of the electric power.

7. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the image processing device executes the image processing at a higher speed than the image processing section.

8. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of operation modes includes a still image capturing mode and a video image capturing mode.

9. The radiation image capturing device of claim 1, wherein the radiation image capturing device is structured as an electronic cassette.

10. A radiation image capturing device comprising:

a radiation image capturing section that is adapted to capture, in an operation mode selected from among a plurality of operation modes that are determined in advance, a radiation image expressed by radiation that has passed through a subject of image capturing;

an image processing section that carries out predetermined image processing on image information obtained by the image capturing by the radiation image capturing section;

a power supply section that supplies electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section;

a connection portion that electrically connects to a power supply device, that is adapted to supply electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section, an image processing device, that carries out a same type of image processing as the image processing section, or any combination thereof; and

a control section that effects control such that, in a case in which the power supply device, the image processing device, or any combination thereof, is connected to the connection portion, a limitation on selection of the operation mode is relaxed, and that effects control such that, in a case in which the power supply device is connected to the connection portion, the power supply device is used instead of the power supply section, and in a case in which the image processing device is connected to the connection portion, the image processing device is used instead of the image processing section.

11. The radiation image capturing device of claim 10, wherein, in a case in which the control section has effected control such that the power supply device, the image processing device, or any combination thereof, connected to the connection portion is used, the control section effects control so as to reduce, as compared with before control, or so as to stop, frequency of clock signals for synchronous control, electric power for driving that are supplied to the image processing section, or any combination thereof.

12. The radiation image capturing device of claim 10, further comprising a transmitting section that, in a case in which neither the power supply device nor the image processing device is connected to the connection portion, wirelessly transmits the image information, that has been subjected to the image processing by the image processing section, to an external device.

13. The radiation image capturing device of claim 10, wherein the power supply section has a battery, and a converting section that converts voltage of electric power supplied from the battery into voltages that are used at a destination of supply of the electric power.

14. The radiation image capturing device of claim 10, wherein the image processing device executes the image processing at a higher speed than the image processing section.

15. The radiation image capturing device of claim 10, wherein the plurality of operation modes includes a still image capturing mode and a video image capturing mode.

16. The radiation image capturing device of claim 10, wherein the radiation image capturing device is structured as an electronic cassette.

17. A radiation image capturing system comprising:

(A) a radiation image capturing device comprising;

a radiation image capturing section that is adapted to capture, in an operation mode selected from among a plurality of operation modes that are determined in advance, a radiation image expressed by radiation that has passed through a subject of image capturing,

a power supply section that supplies electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section,

a connection portion that electrically connects to a power supply device that is adapted to supply electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section, and

a control section that effects control such that, in a case in which an operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more has been selected as the operation mode and the power supply device is connected to the connection portion, a limitation on selection of the operation mode is relaxed and the power supply device is used instead of the power supply section; and

(B) the power supply device.

18. The radiation image capturing system of claim 17, further comprising an instructing device that comprises an instruction transmitting section that transmits, to the radiation image capturing device, instruction information that instructs the operation mode,

wherein the radiation image capturing device further comprises a receiving section that receives the instruction information transmitted from the instruction transmitting section of the instructing device, and

the control section effects control such that, in a case in which the operation mode that is instructed by the instruction information received by the receiving section is an operation mode requiring use of the power supply device, and the power supply device is not connected to the connection portion, at least one of issuing of a warning or discontinuing of image capturing by the radiation image capturing section is carried out.

19. A radiation image capturing system comprising:

(A) a radiation image capturing device comprising;

a radiation image capturing section that is adapted to capture, in an operation mode selected from among a plurality of operation modes that are determined in advance, a radiation image expressed by radiation that has passed through a subject of image capturing,

an image processing section that carries out predetermined image processing on image information that is obtained by the image capturing by the radiation image capturing section,

a power supply section that supplies electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section,

a connection portion that electrically connects to an image processing device that carries out a same type of image processing as the image processing section, and

a control section that effects control such that, in a case in which an operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more has been selected as the operation mode, and a power supply device that is adapted to supply electric power for driving to the radiation image capturing section is connected to the connection portion, the power supply device is used instead of the power supply section, and, in a case in which an operation mode that generates a predetermined generated heat amount or more has been selected as the operation mode and the image processing device is connected to the connection portion, limitation on selection of the operation mode is relaxed and the image processing device is used instead of the image processing section; and

(B) the image processing device; and

(C) the power supply device.

20. The radiation image capturing system of claim 19, further comprising an instructing device comprising an instruction transmitting section that transmits, to the radiation image capturing device, instruction information that instructs the operation mode,

wherein the radiation image capturing device further comprises a receiving section that receives the instruction information transmitted from the instruction transmitting section of the instructing device, and

the control section effects control such that, in a case in which the operation mode that is instructed by the instruction information received by the receiving section is an operation mode requiring use of the image processing device, and the image processing device is not connected to the connection portion, at least one of issuing of a warning or discontinuing of image capturing by the radiation image capturing section is carried out.