Site News  |   Monitor Keywords  |   Monitor Archive  |   Organizer  |   Account Info  |

Method for controlling a capsule type endoscope based on detected position

Method for controlling a capsule type endoscope based on detected position description/claims

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-186827, filed Jun. 20, 2001, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a capsule type endoscope having a capsule body internally equipped with an image taking device for taking images in the body cavity of a human subject.

2. Description of the Related Art

An endoscope can be inserted into the esophageal canal of the human subject to directly examine the inner wall of any affected region of interest with high reliability. However, this method needs relatively large equipment and, in addition, a large burden is inflicted on the patient and operator. Therefore, such conventional endoscopy is hard to adopt in a first screening such as mass screening.

As a first screening such as mass screening, in general, it is usually only necessary to examine the presence or absence of any affected region of interest at least, and a simpler examination should be adopted from the standpoint of reduced cost, pain and psychological unrest.

Therefore, it has been desired to establish simpler checking means for adopting a first screening program by which it is possible to directly and exactly check the esophageal wall for any affected new region of interest.

One approach is directed to a camera type of system according to which an endoscope is formed as a capsule configuration and, by swallowing such a capsule, images are taken by that camera-incorporated capsule during its passage through the esophageal canal to allow the corresponding image signals to be, for example, wirelessly transmitted to the outside in realtime.

However, upon image transmission in realtime, the video frame rate is normally very slow at two frames per second, while, on the other hand, the time during which the capsule passes through the esophageal canal is very short, being of the order of one second. As a result, only about one or two frames can be obtained during the passage of the capsule through the esophageal canal. Therefore, adequate reliability can not be ensured at such a frame rate and hence it is not suitable for the examination of the esophagus. Further, there has been some inconvenience in that exact examination of not only the esophagus but also the internal organs such as the stomach, the duodenum the small intestine and the large intestine can not be made for any affected region of interest or its neighborhood.

It is accordingly the object of the present invention to provide a capsule type endoscope which can take many more frames of images for a shorter period in which the capsule passes through an affected region or its neighborhood, or a region of interest, of the esophageal canal and internal organs.

In order to achieve the above object, there is provided a capsule type endoscope of the present invention having a capsule body comprising an illuminating unit configured to illuminate the inside of a living body, an image pickup element configured to take images in a living body illuminated by the illuminating unit and generate taken image signals, a processing circuit configured to process the taken image signals to generate image signals, a memory configured to store the image signals, a transmitting circuit configured to take out the image signals from the memory and convert these image signals to transmission signals, and an antenna configured to wirelessly transmit these transmission signals to the outside of the living body, wherein the image signals generated from the processing circuit are stored in the memory, the image signals stored in the memory are converted to transmission signals by the transmitting circuit and the transmission signals are wirelessly transmitted to the outside by the antenna.

It is, therefore, possible to take many more frames of images in a shorter period of time during which the capsule passes through the esophageal canal and obtain added reliability on examination.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a view in longitudinal cross-section diagrammatically showing a capsule type endoscope according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view in transverse cross-section diagrammatically showing a capsule type endoscope according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

• What Is a Patent?
• What Is a Trademark or Servicemark?
• What Is a Copyright?
• Patent Laws