JP2009195271A - Capsule endoscope system - Google Patents

Abstract

An amount of movement of a capsule endoscope (CE) in a patient is accurately detected.
CE 11 is provided with a CE acceleration sensor 42 for detecting acceleration. A patient acceleration sensor 19 for detecting acceleration is provided on an antenna 16 attached to a shield shirt 15 worn by the patient 10. CE acceleration is wirelessly transmitted from the CE 11 to the receiver 17 (recording device 12). The detection result of the patient acceleration sensor 19 is input to the recorder 17. The recorder 17 detects the relative movement amount of the CE 11 with respect to the patient 10 based on the CE acceleration and the patient acceleration. Even when the patient 10 moves, the difference between the movement of the patient 10 and the movement of the CE 11 can be determined.
[Selection] Figure 9

Description

  The present invention relates to a capsule endoscope system that wirelessly receives and stores an endoscopic image captured by a capsule endoscope with a receiving device carried by a subject.

  Recently, endoscopic inspection using a capsule endoscope in which an image sensor, an illumination light source, and the like are incorporated in an ultra-small capsule is being put into practical use. In this endoscopy, first, the patient is swallowed by the capsule endoscope, and the observation site is imaged by the imaging element while illuminating the observation site in the human body (inner wall surface of the human body duct) with the illumination light source. To do. Then, the image data obtained thereby is wirelessly received by a receiving device carried by the patient, and sequentially stored in a storage medium such as a flash memory provided in the receiving device. During or after the inspection, the image data is taken into an information management device such as a workstation, and the image displayed on the monitor is interpreted to make a diagnosis.

  The moving speed when the capsule endoscope moves in the human body is not constant. For example, when the capsule endoscope is in the intestine, the movement speed of the capsule endoscope increases when the movement of the bowel becomes active, and conversely, the movement speed of the capsule endoscope decreases when the movement of the bowel becomes weak. . When the moving speed of the capsule endoscope becomes faster, if the frame rate (number of shots per unit time) when the capsule endoscope is set to a low value is set, a portion that cannot be shot, so-called spillage occurs. To do. Conversely, if the frame rate is set high when the moving speed of the capsule endoscope is slowed down, the number of similar images obtained by photographing the same part will increase.

Therefore, an acceleration sensor is provided in the capsule endoscope, the acceleration of the capsule endoscope in the patient's body is detected, the moving speed of the capsule endoscope is obtained from the detected endoscope acceleration, and according to the obtained moving speed. An invention for changing the imaging conditions of the capsule endoscope is disclosed (see Patent Documents 1 and 2). The present invention, for example, increases the frame rate when the moving speed of the capsule endoscope is fast, and conversely decreases the frame rate when the moving speed is slow, thereby causing the occurrence of overshooting or similar image capturing. The increase in the number is suppressed.
JP-T-2004-521626 JP 2006-238992 A

  By the way, in the endoscopy using the capsule endoscope, in order to move the capsule endoscope smoothly in the patient's body, for example, in the intestine, the intestinal movement is activated by making the patient do exercises during the examination. I am letting. When the patient performs gymnastic exercises in this way, in the inventions described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, since the acceleration sensor in the capsule endoscope detects the acceleration (movement) of the patient, the acceleration of the capsule endoscope Discrimination from patient acceleration becomes difficult. For this reason, the moving speed (the amount of movement per unit time) of the capsule endoscope within the patient is not accurately detected. As a result, since a frame rate suitable for the actual amount of movement of the capsule endoscope is not determined, the occurrence of overshooting and an increase in the number of similar images still occur.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a capsule endoscope system that can accurately detect the amount of movement of the capsule endoscope within the patient.

  To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a capsule endoscope that is swallowed into a subject and images a site to be observed in the subject, and is carried by the subject and wirelessly communicated with the capsule endoscope. In a capsule endoscope system including a receiving device that wirelessly receives an endoscope image obtained by the capsule endoscope and stores the image, the capsule endoscope is provided in the capsule endoscope, Endoscopic acceleration detecting means for detecting the acceleration of the capsule endoscope, subject acceleration detecting means for detecting the acceleration of the subject carrying the receiving device provided in the receiving device, and the capsule endoscope Alternatively, the phase of the capsule endoscope with respect to the subject is provided on at least one of the receiving devices and based on the detection results of the endoscope acceleration detecting means and the subject acceleration detecting means. Characterized in that it comprises a relative motion amount detecting means for detecting a movement amount.

  An imaging condition of the capsule endoscope is determined based on a relative movement amount of the capsule endoscope that is provided in at least one of the capsule endoscope and the receiving device and is detected by the relative movement amount detection unit. Preferably, the imaging apparatus includes: an imaging condition determining unit that performs the imaging, and an imaging control unit that is provided in the capsule endoscope and causes the capsule endoscope to perform the imaging according to the imaging condition determined by the imaging condition determining unit.

  It is preferable that the shooting conditions include at least one of a frame rate, a field of view range, and an exposure when performing the shooting. Further, it is preferable that the photographing condition determining unit determines the photographing condition so that the frame rate increases as the relative motion amount increases. As a result, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of spillage when the relative movement amount of the capsule endoscope is large, and to reduce the number of similar images when the relative movement amount is small.

  It is preferable that the imaging condition determination unit determines the imaging condition so that the field-of-view range is expanded as the amount of relative motion increases. As in the case of the frame rate, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of overshooting.

  The imaging condition determining means determines the imaging condition so that the imaging shutter speed increases as the relative motion amount increases, and the amount of illumination light that illuminates the observation site increases. Is preferred. Thereby, even when the amount of relative movement of the capsule endoscope is large, blurring of the endoscope image is prevented.

  The imaging condition determining means determines that the relative motion amount is large when the subject acceleration detected by the subject acceleration detection means is equal to or greater than a predetermined value even when the relative motion amount is relatively small. Therefore, it is preferable to determine the photographing condition as a special photographing condition according to the case where the relative motion amount is large. For example, when the capsule endoscope is in the intestine, even if the movement of the intestine is activated by the movement of the subject (patient) and the relative movement amount of the capsule endoscope suddenly increases, the relative movement amount is It is possible to control the pre-reading of the movement of the capsule endoscope, for example, by increasing the frame rate in advance assuming that the capsule endoscope becomes large.

  If the relative motion amount does not increase even after a predetermined time has elapsed after determining the special photographing condition, the photographing condition determining means determines the photographing condition based on the relative motion amount at that time. It is preferable to re-determine. This prevents the shooting according to the special shooting conditions from being continued even though the relative movement amount does not increase contrary to the assumption.

  The receiving device includes an antenna for performing wireless communication with the capsule endoscope, and a storage device for storing the endoscopic image wirelessly received via the antenna, and the subject acceleration Preferably, the detection unit is provided in the antenna, and the relative motion amount detection unit and the photographing condition determination unit are provided in the storage device.

  An endoscope posture detecting means provided in the capsule endoscope for detecting the posture of the capsule endoscope in the subject, and a posture of the subject provided in the receiving device and carrying the receiving device. A subject posture detecting means for detecting, wherein the relative motion amount detecting means detects the relative motion amount in consideration of detection results of the endoscope posture detecting means and the subject posture detecting means. preferable.

  Based on the amount of relative movement, the endoscope image for interpretation used for interpretation is selected from the plurality of endoscope images wirelessly received by the reception device from the capsule endoscope based on the amount of relative motion. It is preferable to provide an image selection means. Accordingly, since the doctor only has to interpret the selected endoscopic image for interpretation, the amount of the endoscopic image that the doctor interprets is reduced. As a result, the burden on the doctor who interprets the endoscopic image is reduced, and the time required for interpretation and diagnosis can be shortened.

  Preferably, the image selection means increases the number of selected endoscopic images for interpretation as the amount of relative motion increases.

  Data amount reduction with respect to the endoscopic image that is not selected by the image selecting unit from among the plurality of endoscopic images provided in the receiving device and wirelessly received by the receiving device from the capsule endoscope It is preferable to provide a data amount reduction means for processing. Since it is possible to reduce the amount of endoscopic image data that has not been selected, it is possible to use a storage medium such as a storage device of the receiving apparatus that has a smaller storage capacity than before, and as a result, cost reduction can be achieved. .

  The present invention detects the relative movement amount of the capsule endoscope with respect to the subject based on the results of detecting the endoscope acceleration of the capsule endoscope and the subject acceleration of the subject. Based on the above, the capsule endoscope imaging conditions are determined, and the capsule endoscope performs imaging according to the determined imaging conditions, so even if the subject moves during the examination, The amount of movement of the capsule endoscope can be accurately detected. As a result, when the subject moves, it is prevented that the difference between the subject's movement and the capsule endoscope's movement cannot be discriminated as in the prior art. Furthermore, it is possible to cause the capsule endoscope to perform imaging in accordance with the accurately detected imaging conditions. As a result, for example, by increasing / decreasing the frame rate in accordance with the increase / decrease in the amount of motion, it is possible to reduce the occurrence of spillage of endoscopic images and the number of similar images taken.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a capsule endoscope system 2 includes a capsule endoscope (hereinafter abbreviated as CE) 11 swallowed from the mouth of a patient 10 (subject) into a human body, and a patient 10. And a workstation (hereinafter abbreviated as WS) 13 for a doctor to read and diagnose an image obtained by the CE 11.

  The CE 11 images the inner wall surface when passing through a human body duct (for example, the intestine), and wirelessly transmits the image data obtained thereby to the receiving device 12 using a radio wave 14a. Further, the CE 11 wirelessly transmits the CE acceleration indicating the acceleration of the CE 11 and the CE posture information indicating the posture (orientation) of the CE 11 in the patient body to the receiving device 12 by the radio wave 14a. The CE 11 receives a control command from the receiving device 12 by radio waves 14b and operates based on the control command.

  The receiving device 12 includes an antenna 16 attached to a shield shirt 15 worn by the patient 10, and a recorder (storage device) 17 connected to the antenna 16 by wire and attached to the belt of the patient 10. Composed. The antenna 16 transmits and receives radio waves 14a and 14b to and from the CE 11. The antenna 16 includes an electric field strength measurement sensor 18 (see FIG. 4) for measuring the electric field strength of the radio wave 14a from the CE 11, and four patient acceleration sensors 19 (object acceleration detection) for detecting patient acceleration indicating the acceleration of the patient 10. Means) and a patient posture detection sensor 20 (subject posture detection means) for detecting the posture of the patient 10. The detection results (electric field strength, patient acceleration, patient posture information) of the sensors 18 to 20 are input to the recorder 17.

  The recorder 17 includes a liquid crystal display (hereinafter abbreviated as LCD) 21 that displays various setting screens, and an operation unit 22 for performing various settings. The recorder 17 wirelessly receives the image data wirelessly transmitted from the CE 11 with the radio wave 14a via the antenna 16, and stores this. The recorder 17 captures the CE 11 based on the CE acceleration / posture information received wirelessly from the CE 11 via the antenna 16 and the patient acceleration / posture information input from the patient acceleration / posture detection sensors 19 and 20. Determine the conditions. Then, the recorder 17 generates a control command based on the determined shooting condition, and wirelessly transmits the control command to the CE 11 via the antenna 16 using the radio wave 14b.

  The shooting conditions include the frame rate, field of view range, and exposure when the CE 11 performs shooting. The exposure can be adjusted by changing the shutter speed of the image sensor 33 of the CE 11 and the amount of illumination light emitted from the illumination light source unit 38 (see FIGS. 2 and 3).

  In addition, the code | symbol C1 in a figure is a predetermined reference coordinate system, and consists of X1 axis | shaft, Y1 axis | shaft, and Z1 axis | shaft orthogonal to each other. This reference coordinate system C1 is used when the photographing condition is determined by the recorder 17, and is defined so that the Z1 axis is parallel to the direction of gravity, that is, perpendicular to the floor (ground) (FIG. 5 and FIG. 5). (See FIG. 6).

  The WS 13 includes a processor 24, an operation unit 25 such as a keyboard and a mouse, and a monitor 26. The processor 24 is connected to the recorder 17 via, for example, a USB cable 27 (or wireless communication such as infrared communication is possible), and exchanges data with the recorder 17. The processor 24 captures image data from the recorder 17 during or after the examination by the CE 11, accumulates and manages the image data for each patient, generates a television image from the image data, and displays this on the monitor 26. .

  As shown in FIG. 2, the CE 11 includes a transparent front cover 30 and a rear cover 31 that is fitted to the front cover 30 to form a watertight space. Both the covers 30 and 31 are formed in a cylindrical shape whose front end or rear end has a substantially hemispherical shape. In the space formed by both covers 30 and 31, an objective optical system 32 for taking in image light of the site to be observed and an image sensor 33 such as a CCD or CMOS for capturing the image light of the site to be observed are incorporated. In the image sensor 33, the image light of the observed region incident from the objective optical system 32 is imaged on the imaging surface, and an image signal corresponding to the image light is output from each pixel.

  The objective optical system 32 includes a transparent convex optical dome 32a, a first lens holder 32b, a first lens 32c, a guide rod 32d, a second lens holder 32e, and a second lens 32f. . The optical dome 32 a is disposed at a substantially hemispherical portion at the front end of the front cover 30. The first lens holder 32b is attached to the rear end of the optical dome 32a, and is tapered toward the rear end. The first lens 32c is fixed to the first lens holder 32b.

  The guide rod 32d is a screw rod parallel to the optical axis 35 attached to the rear end of the first lens holder 32b. The second lens holder 32e has a female screw hole into which the guide rod 32d is screwed, and moves in the optical axis direction when the guide rod 32d rotates. The second lens 32f is fixed to the second lens holder 32e.

  The second lens 32f is a so-called zoom lens. When the guide rod 32d is rotated by the lens driving unit 36 constituted by a stepping motor or the like, the second lens 32f is moved in the optical axis direction and the zoom magnification is changed. Thereby, the visual field range (imaging range) of the objective optical system 32 is changed to a range corresponding to the zoom magnification after the change. The lens driving unit 36 changes the zoom magnification of the objective optical system 32 so that photographing is performed in the field of view range (zoom magnification) set by the control command. Then, the objective optical system 32 captures an omnidirectional image of the site to be observed as image light within the set visual field range.

  Further, in both covers 30 and 31, an illumination light source unit 38 that irradiates the observation site with illumination light, an electric circuit board 39 on which various electronic circuits (see FIG. 3) are mounted, a button-type battery 40, and radio waves The antenna 41 for transmitting and receiving 14a and 14b, the CE acceleration sensor 42 (endoscopic acceleration detecting means) for detecting the CE acceleration of the CE 11, and the CE for detecting the CE posture information indicating the posture of the CE 11 in the reference coordinate system C1 described above. A posture detection sensor 43 (endoscope posture detection means) and the like are accommodated.

  The CE acceleration sensor 42 is a so-called triaxial acceleration sensor. The CE acceleration sensor 42 detects the acceleration in each axial direction of the sensor coordinate system C2. The sensor coordinate system C2 is made up of an X2 axis, a Y2 axis, and a Z2 axis that are orthogonal to each other, and a direction parallel to the optical axis 35 is defined as the Z2 axis direction. In addition, since CE11 takes various postures within the body of the patient 10, the posture of the CE acceleration sensor 42 is not constant. Therefore, the sensor coordinate system C2 is not a fixed coordinate system like the reference coordinate system C1, but a coordinate system that rotates around an arbitrary axis in accordance with the attitude of the CE 11 (see FIG. 5A).

  When the CE 11 accelerates in the direction of the arrow of the X2 axis, or decelerates when moving in the opposite direction, the acceleration detection result in the X2 axis direction becomes positive. Further, when the CE 11 accelerates in the direction opposite to the arrow direction of the X2 axis, and when the CE 11 decelerates while moving in the arrow direction, the acceleration detection result in the X2 axis direction becomes negative. Since the acceleration detection results in the Y2-axis direction and the Z2-axis direction are basically the same, the description thereof is omitted.

  The CE acceleration sensor 42 detects the CE acceleration by detecting the acceleration in each axial direction of the CE acceleration when the CE 11 accelerates in an arbitrary direction or decelerates during movement. The CE acceleration is a value obtained by combining the accelerations in the respective axis directions, and is a vector indicating the magnitude and direction of the acceleration of the CE 11 in the sensor coordinate system C2. The direction of the CE acceleration is represented by, for example, an inclination angle from each axis of the sensor coordinate system C2. The detection of CE acceleration by the CE acceleration sensor 42 is sequentially performed, and the detection result is input to the CPU 45 (see FIG. 3).

  The CE posture detection sensor 43 is not particularly limited as long as it is a posture detection sensor that can detect the posture of the CE 11 in the patient in the reference coordinate system C1, and for example, a three-axis acceleration sensor similar to the CE acceleration sensor 42 ( Gravity sensor), posture gyro, etc. are used. A method for detecting the posture of CE11 in the reference coordinate system C1 using various posture detection sensors is well known (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 363265, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-239053, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-068109). Since there is, description is abbreviate | omitted here.

  The CE attitude detection by the CE attitude detection sensor 43 is performed in synchronization with the CE acceleration detection by the CE acceleration sensor 42, and the detection result (CE attitude information) is input to the CPU 45 of the CE 11 (see FIG. 3). The CE attitude information is represented by, for example, the rotation angle (yaw direction, pitch direction, roll direction) of the sensor coordinate system C2 with respect to the reference coordinate system C1.

  In FIG. 3, a CPU 45 (shooting control means) controls the overall operation of the CE 11 in an integrated manner. In addition to the lens driving unit 36, the CE acceleration sensor 42, and the CE attitude detection sensor 43, the CPU 45 includes a ROM 46, a RAM 47, a photographing driver 48, a modulation circuit 49, a demodulation circuit 50, a power supply circuit 51, an illumination driver 52, and the like. Is connected.

  The ROM 46 stores various programs and data for controlling the operation of the CE 11. The CPU 45 reads out necessary programs and data from the ROM 46, develops them in the RAM 47, and sequentially processes the read programs. The RAM 47 also temporarily stores data of shooting conditions [frame rate, field of view range (zoom magnification), exposure (shutter speed, light quantity)] set by a control command from the recorder 17.

  The imaging driver 33 and the signal processing circuit 54 are connected to the imaging driver 48. The shooting driver 48 controls the operations of the image sensor 33 and the signal processing circuit 54 so that shooting is performed at the frame rate and shutter speed set by the control command. The signal processing circuit 54 performs correlated double sampling, amplification, and A / D conversion on the image signal output from the image sensor 33, and converts the image signal into digital image data. The converted image data is subjected to various image processing such as γ correction.

  A transmission / reception circuit 55 is connected to the modulation circuit 49 and the demodulation circuit 50, and an antenna 41 is connected to the transmission / reception circuit 55. The modulation circuit 49 modulates the digital image data output from the signal processing circuit 54 into a radio wave 14 a and outputs the modulated radio wave 14 a to the transmission / reception circuit 55. Further, the CE acceleration / attitude information detected by the CE acceleration / attitude detection sensors 42, 43 is input to the modulation circuit 49, respectively. The modulation circuit 49 also modulates the CE acceleration / attitude information into the radio wave 14 a and outputs it to the transmission / reception circuit 55.

  The demodulation circuit 50 demodulates the radio wave 14b from the receiving device 12 into the original control command, and outputs the demodulated control command to the CPU 45. The transmission / reception circuit 55 amplifies the radio wave 14a from the modulation circuit 49 and band-pass-filters it, then outputs it to the antenna 41, amplifies the radio wave 14b received via the antenna 41, filters the band-pass filter, and then demodulates the demodulator circuit. Output to 50.

  The power supply circuit 51 supplies the power of the battery 40 to each part of the CE 11. Under the control of the CPU 45, the illumination driver 52 controls the driving of the illumination light source unit 38 so that photographing is performed with the amount of illumination light set by the control command.

  In FIG. 4, the patient acceleration sensor 19 is a triaxial acceleration sensor similar to the CE acceleration sensor 42. Accordingly, the patient acceleration sensor 19 also detects accelerations in the X3 axis, Y3 axis, and Z3 axis directions of the sensor coordinate system C3 (see FIG. 5B), which is its own coordinate system. In the present embodiment, for example, when the upper body of the patient 10 stands upright, the Z3 axis is defined to be substantially parallel to the Z1 axis of the reference coordinate system C1. In the figure, the antenna 16 and the sensors 18 to 20 are shown separately from each other in order to prevent complication of the drawing.

  Here, if the patient 10 does not move during the endoscopic examination, the posture of the patient acceleration sensor 19 does not change substantially, so the sensor coordinate system C3 is a substantially fixed coordinate system. However, in endoscopy using CE11, in order to make CE11 move smoothly in the body of the patient 10, for example, in the intestine, the patient 10 is exercised to activate intestinal movement. Therefore, the posture of the patient acceleration sensor 19 changes depending on the posture of the patient 10 such as when the patient 10 is standing, sitting, or bending forward (see FIG. 5B). For this reason, the sensor coordinate system C3 is a coordinate system that rotates around an arbitrary axis in accordance with the posture of the patient 10.

  The patient acceleration sensor 19 detects the acceleration in each axial direction of the sensor coordinate system C3 as described in the acceleration detection by the CE acceleration sensor 42 described above. The patient acceleration is a combination of accelerations in the respective axis directions, and represents the magnitude of the acceleration of the patient 10 in the sensor coordinate system C3 and its direction (for example, the tilt angle from the X3 to Z3 axes). Detection of patient acceleration by the patient acceleration sensor 19 is sequentially performed, and the detection result is input to the recorder 17.

  The patient posture detection sensor 20 detects patient posture information indicating the posture of the patient 10 in the reference coordinate system C1 described above. As the patient posture detection sensor 20, various posture detection sensors are used in the same manner as the CE posture detection sensor 43 described above. The posture detection of the patient 10 by the patient posture detection sensor 20 is performed in synchronization with the detection of the patient acceleration by the patient acceleration sensor 19, and this detection result (patient posture information) is input to the recorder 17. The patient posture information is also represented by the rotation angle (yaw direction, pitch direction, roll direction) of the sensor coordinate system C3 with respect to the reference coordinate system C1, similarly to the CE posture information described above.

  The CPU 60 of the recorder 17 controls the overall operation of the recorder. The CPU 60 is connected via a data bus 61 to a ROM 62, RAM 63, modulation circuit 64, demodulation circuit 65, image processing circuit 66, data storage 67, input I / F 68, position detection circuit 69, relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 (relative). Motion amount detection means) and a database 71 are connected.

  The data bus 61 also includes an LCD driver 73 that controls the display of the LCD 21, a communication I / F 75 that mediates data exchange with the processor 24 via the USB connector 74, and the power of the battery 76 in the recorder 17 (each sensor 18 The power supply circuit 77 and the like to be supplied to each part (including 20 to 20) are also connected.

  The ROM 62 stores various programs and data for controlling the operation of the recorder 17. The CPU 60 reads out necessary programs and data from the ROM 62, develops them in the RAM 63, and sequentially processes the read programs. Further, the CPU 60 operates each unit of the recorder 17 in accordance with an operation input signal from the operation unit 22.

  The modulation circuit 64 and the demodulation circuit 65 are each connected to a transmission / reception circuit 79, and the antenna 16 is connected to the transmission / reception circuit 79. The modulation circuit 64 modulates the control command into the radio wave 14 b and outputs the modulated radio wave 14 b to the transmission / reception circuit 79. The demodulation circuit 65 demodulates the radio wave 14a from the receiving device 12 into the original image data, CE acceleration, and CE attitude information. Then, the demodulation circuit 65 outputs the demodulated image data to the image processing circuit 66 and outputs CE acceleration and CE attitude information to the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70.

  The transmission / reception circuit 79 amplifies the radio wave 14b from the modulation circuit 64 and band-pass-filters it, then outputs it to the antenna 16, amplifies the radio wave 14a received via the antenna 16, filters it through the band-pass, and then demodulates the demodulator circuit. Output to 65.

  The image processing circuit 66 performs various types of image processing on the image data demodulated by the demodulation circuit 65, and then outputs the image data that has undergone image processing to the data storage 67. The data storage 67 is composed of, for example, a flash memory having a storage capacity of about 1 GB. The data storage 67 stores and accumulates image data sequentially output from the image processing circuit 66.

  The input I / F 68 is connected to the electric field strength measurement sensor 18, the patient acceleration sensor 19, and the patient posture detection sensor 20 by wire. Detection results from the sensors 18 to 20 are input to the input I / F 68. The detection result of the electric field strength measurement sensor 18 is output from the input I / F 68 to the position detection circuit 69, and the detection results of the patient acceleration / posture detection sensors 19 and 20 are calculated from the input I / F 68. It is output to the circuit 70.

  The position detection circuit 69 detects the current position of the CE 11 in the human body based on the measurement result of the electric field intensity of the radio wave 14 a by the electric field intensity measurement sensor 18, and this detection result (hereinafter referred to as position information) is stored in the data storage 67. Output. The data storage 67 stores the position information from the position detection circuit 69 in association with the image data from the image processing circuit 66. Note that a method for detecting the position of the CE 11 in the human body based on the measurement result of the electric field strength is well known, and thus description thereof is omitted here.

  The relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 obtains the relative motion amount (movement amount) of the CE 11 with respect to the patient 10 based on the CE acceleration / posture information and the patient acceleration / posture information. First, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 obtains an average (average patient acceleration) of patient accelerations respectively input from the four patient acceleration sensors 19. Next, the difference between the CE acceleration and the average patient acceleration is calculated, and the relative acceleration (relative acceleration) of the CE 11 with respect to the patient 10 is obtained. That is, the acceleration (movement) of the patient 10 detected by the CE acceleration sensor 42 is canceled.

  As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, when the relative acceleration is obtained, the sensor coordinate system C2 of the CE acceleration sensor 42 (CE11) and the sensor coordinate system C3 of the patient acceleration sensor 19 have different directions. In some cases, it is not possible to simply take the difference between the two accelerations. Therefore, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 converts the CE acceleration and the average patient acceleration into accelerations in the reference coordinate system C1 (hereinafter referred to as reference CE acceleration and reference patient acceleration), respectively, and then calculates the reference CE acceleration and the reference patient acceleration. The relative acceleration of CE11 is obtained by taking the difference of.

  In addition, when calculating | requiring a relative acceleration, it is necessary for the detection timing of CE acceleration and posture information which takes a difference, and the detection timing of patient acceleration and posture information to correspond substantially. For this reason, for example, a synchronization signal synchronized with the detection timing of the patient acceleration / posture information is transmitted from the recorder 17 (receiving device 12) to the CE 11 by using the radio wave 14a. Send it.

  The relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 converts the CE acceleration in the sensor coordinate system C2 into a reference CE acceleration based on the CE posture information. The magnitude of the reference CE acceleration is the same as the magnitude of the CE acceleration. The direction of the reference CE acceleration is the direction of the CE acceleration indicated by the direction in the reference coordinate system C1 (for example, tilt angles from the X1, Y1, and Z1 axes). The direction of the reference CE acceleration can be easily determined from the direction of the CE acceleration in the sensor coordinate system C2 (the tilt angle from the X2 to Z2 axes) and the CE attitude information (the rotation angle of the sensor coordinate system C2 with respect to the reference coordinate system C1). Desired. As a method for converting the CE acceleration to the reference CE acceleration based on the CE posture information, for example, a known coordinate conversion method using a coordinate conversion formula or the like may be used.

  Similarly, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 converts the average patient acceleration in the sensor coordinate system C3 into the reference patient acceleration based on the patient posture information. The reference patient acceleration also indicates the direction of the average patient acceleration as the direction in the reference coordinate system C1, and the magnitude thereof is the same as the average patient acceleration.

  Next, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 decomposes the reference CE acceleration and the reference patient acceleration into accelerations (components) in the X1 to Z1 axis directions of the reference coordinate system C1, respectively, and the reference CE acceleration and the reference patient acceleration for each axis direction. The difference is taken. Relative acceleration is calculated by synthesizing the difference in acceleration in each axis direction.

  Then, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 integrates the calculated relative acceleration twice (double) at a preset sampling time interval. Thereby, the relative motion amount of the CE 11 within the sampling time is calculated. The length of this sampling time may be determined as appropriate. The relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 sequentially outputs the calculated relative motion amount of the CE 11 to the CPU 60.

  Next, the relative motion amount calculation processing by the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 will be described with reference to FIG. When the endoscopy is started, the CE acceleration / posture detection sensors 42 and 43 in the CE 11 start detecting the CE acceleration / posture information, and the four patient acceleration sensors 19 provided on the antenna 16 and The patient posture detection sensor 20 starts detecting patient acceleration / posture information. As described above, the detection of CE acceleration / posture information and the detection of patient acceleration / posture information are performed in synchronization.

  The detection results of the CE acceleration / attitude detection sensors 42 and 43 are wirelessly transmitted from the CE 11 via the radio wave 14a, then received by the antenna 16 and input to the recorder 17. Then, after being demodulated to the original CE acceleration / attitude information by the demodulating circuit 65, the demodulated circuit 65 inputs it to the relative motion amount calculating circuit 70. The detection results of the patient acceleration / posture detection sensors 19 and 20 are input to the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 via the input I / F 68 of the recorder 17.

  The relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 converts the CE acceleration to the reference CE acceleration in the reference coordinate system C1 based on the CE posture information. In addition, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 obtains an average of patient accelerations input from the four patient acceleration sensors 19 and converts the obtained average patient acceleration into a reference patient acceleration based on patient posture information. Next, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 decomposes the reference CE acceleration and the reference patient acceleration into accelerations (components) in the respective axis directions of the reference coordinate system C1, and obtains an acceleration difference for each axis direction. Then, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 calculates the relative acceleration of the CE 11 by synthesizing the acceleration difference for each axial direction.

  Next, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 integrates the calculated relative acceleration twice at a preset sampling time interval, calculates the relative motion amount of the CE 11 with respect to the patient 10, and outputs the calculation result to the CPU 60. Similarly, the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 sequentially calculates the relative motion amount of the CE 11 and outputs the calculated relative motion amount of the CE 11 to the CPU 60 until the end of the endoscopy.

  Returning to FIG. 4, the imaging condition determination circuit 81 (imaging condition determination means) of the CPU 60 refers to the imaging condition table 82 in the database 71 based on the relative motion amount of the CE 11 input from the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70. Thus, the frame rate, field-of-view range (zoom magnification), and exposure (shutter speed, light amount), which are the photographing conditions of CE11, are determined.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the imaging condition table 82 includes an optimum frame rate F (fps: frame / second), field-of-view range D (zoom magnification), exposure (shutter speed) in each range of the relative movement amount M (mm). S (1 / second) and illumination light amount I (mA)) are respectively defined. The illumination light amount I is a drive current given to the illumination light source unit 38. As the relative motion amount M increases in the order of 0, 0 <M ≦ m1, m1 <M ≦ m2,... M> mN (m1 <m2 <... <mN, N is a natural number of 1 or more). The frame rate F is increased in the order of f0, f1, f2,... FN (f0 <f1 <f2 <... <FN). By increasing the frame rate F as the relative motion amount M of the CE 11 increases, the occurrence of overshooting is reduced. Furthermore, the number of similar images is reduced by decreasing the frame rate F as the relative motion amount M of the CE 11 becomes smaller.

  Further, as the relative motion amount M increases, the zoom magnification for determining the visual field range D is set to d0, d1, d2,... DN (tele end side: d0> d1> d2>...> DN: wide Change in the order of (end side). That is, the visual field range expands as the relative motion amount M increases, and conversely, the visual field range D decreases as the relative motion amount M decreases. This is because the moving speed of the CE 11 increases as the relative motion amount M of the CE 11 increases, and the portion to be observed changes drastically. In order to prevent this, the frame rate F and the visual field range D are expanded.

  Further, as the relative motion amount M increases, the shutter speed S is increased in the order of s0, s1, s2,... SN (s0> s1> s2>...> SN), and the illumination light quantity I is set to i0. , I1, i2,... IN (i0 <i1 <i2 <... <iN). By increasing the shutter speed and increasing the illumination light quantity I as the relative motion amount M of the CE 11 increases, blurring of the endoscopic image is prevented. This is because the image blurs when the observation site changes drastically, and the amount of illumination light becomes insufficient when the shutter speed S is increased. Further, when the relative motion amount M of the CE 11 becomes small, the power consumption of the CE 11 can be reduced by reducing the shutter speed S and decreasing the illumination light quantity I.

  As shown in FIG. 4, when the shooting condition determination circuit 81 determines a shooting condition based on the relative movement amount and the shooting condition table 82, the CPU 60 generates a control command corresponding to the determined shooting condition. Next, the CPU 60 outputs the generated control command to the modulation circuit 64. The control command is modulated into the radio wave 14 b by the modulation circuit 64, amplified by the transmission / reception circuit 79, and band-pass filtered, and then output to the antenna 16. Thereby, the control command is wirelessly transmitted from the receiving device 12 to the CE 11.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the radio wave 14 b received by the antenna 41 of the CE 11 is demodulated to the original control command via the transmission / reception circuit 55 and the demodulation circuit 50, and is output to the CPU 45. The frame rate, field of view range (zoom magnification), and exposure (shutter speed, illumination light quantity) set by the control command are temporarily stored in the RAM 47.

  The frame rate and shutter speed stored in the RAM 47 are read out by the photographing driver 48. The imaging driver 48 controls the operations of the image sensor 33 and the signal processing circuit 54 so that an endoscopic image is captured at the frame rate and shutter speed set by the control command.

  The visual field range (zoom magnification) stored in the RAM 47 is read out to the lens driving unit 36. The lens driving unit 36 adjusts the zoom magnification of the objective optical system 32 by moving the second lens 32f so that the endoscopic image is captured at the zoom magnification set by the control command. As a result, an endoscopic image is captured in the visual field range set by the control command.

  The illumination light quantity stored in the RAM 47 is read out to the illumination driver 52. The illumination driver 52 controls the drive current applied to the illumination light source unit 38 so that an endoscopic image is taken with the illumination light amount set by the control command. As a result, the CE 11 captures an endoscopic image under the capturing conditions set by the control command. These series of processes are continued until the end examination is completed and an end command is transmitted from the receiving device 12 (recorder 17) to the CE 11.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the CPU 85 comprehensively controls the overall operation of the WS 13. The CPU 85 mediates data exchange with the receiver 87 (recorder 17) via the data bus 86 via the data bus 86 and the driver 87 that controls the display of the monitor 26 and the USB connector 88, and the image data from the receiver 12. Is connected to the communication I / F 89, the data storage 90, and the RAM 91.

  The data storage 90 stores various programs and data necessary for the operation of the WS 13, a support software program for making a diagnosis by a doctor, and the like, and diagnostic information arranged for each patient. The RAM 91 temporarily stores data read from the data storage 90 and intermediate data generated by various arithmetic processes. When the support software is launched, for example, a support software work window is displayed on the monitor 26. When the doctor operates the operation unit 25 on this work window, image display / editing, input of diagnostic information, and the like can be performed.

  Next, the operation of the capsule endoscope system 2 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. First, as a preparation before the examination, the doctor attaches the shield shirt 15 (antenna 16) and the recorder 17 to the patient 10, turns on the CE 11, and causes the patient 10 to swallow.

  When the CE 11 is swallowed by the patient 10 and preparation for endoscopy is completed, the inner surface of the human body duct is imaged by the imaging element 33 while the illumination light source unit 38 illuminates the site to be observed in the human body. . At this time, the image light of the observed region in the human body incident from the objective optical system 32 is imaged on the image pickup surface of the image pickup device 33, whereby an image pickup signal is output from the image pickup device 33. The imaging signal output from the imaging device 33 is subjected to correlated double sampling, amplification, and A / D conversion by the signal processing circuit 54, converted into digital image data, and then subjected to various signal processing.

  When the endoscopy is started, a synchronization signal synchronized with the detection timing of the patient acceleration / posture information is wirelessly transmitted from the receiving device 12 (recorder 17) to the CE 11 using the radio wave 14b. The radio wave 14b received by the antenna 41 of the CE 11 is demodulated into the original synchronization signal by the demodulation circuit 50 and then input to the CPU 45. The CPU 45 causes the CE acceleration / attitude detection sensors 42 and 43 to detect CE acceleration / attitude information according to the input synchronization signal. The detected CE acceleration / attitude information is input to the modulation circuit 49 via the CPU 45.

  The digital image data output from the signal processing circuit 54 and the CE acceleration / attitude information detected by the CE acceleration / attitude detection sensors 42 and 43 are modulated into the radio wave 14 a by the modulation circuit 49. The modulated radio wave 14 a is amplified by the transmission / reception circuit 55, band-pass filtered, and then transmitted from the antenna 41. Thereby, image data and CE acceleration / attitude information are wirelessly transmitted from the CE 11 to the receiving device 12.

  At this time, the electric field strength measurement sensor 18, the four patient acceleration sensors 19, and the patient posture detection sensor 20 attached to the antenna 16 respectively detect the electric field strength, patient acceleration, and patient posture information of the radio wave 14a. Is output to the input I / F 68 of the recorder 17. The detection by the patient acceleration / posture detection sensors 19 and 20 is performed according to a synchronization signal input from the recorder 17.

  The radio wave 14 a received by the antenna 16 of the receiving device 12 is input to the recorder 17. The radio wave 14a input to the recorder 17 is demodulated into original image data and CE acceleration / attitude information by a demodulating circuit 65 through a transmitting / receiving circuit 79. The demodulated image data is output to the image processing circuit 66, and the CE acceleration / attitude information is output to the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70. The image data is output to the data storage 67 after being subjected to various image processing by the image processing circuit 66.

  The electric field strength input to the input I / F 68 is output to the position detection circuit 69, and the patient acceleration / posture information is output to the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70. The position detection circuit 69 detects the current position of the CE 11 in the body of the patient 10 based on the measurement result of the electric field intensity of the radio wave 14 a and outputs the detection result to the data storage 67. The data storage 67 stores the position information from the position detection circuit 69 in association with the image data from the image processing circuit 66.

  The relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 calculates the relative motion amount of the CE 11 in the body of the patient 10 based on the input CE acceleration / posture information and patient acceleration / posture information as described above with reference to FIG. The calculation result is output to the CPU 60.

  The imaging condition determination circuit 81 of the CPU 60 refers to the imaging condition table 82 in the database 71 based on the relative motion amount of the CE 11 input from the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70, and the CE 11 imaging condition [frame rate, field of view range]. (Zoom magnification), exposure (shutter speed, illumination light quantity)]. The CPU 60 generates a control command based on the determined shooting condition, and outputs the generated control command to the modulation circuit 64. The control command is modulated into the radio wave 14 b by the modulation circuit 64 and then output to the antenna 16 through the transmission / reception circuit 79. Thereby, the control command is wirelessly transmitted from the receiving device 12 to the CE 11.

  The radio wave 14b received by the antenna 41 of the CE 11 is demodulated to the original control command through the transmission / reception circuit 55 and the demodulation circuit 50, output to the CPU 45, and temporarily stored in the RAM 47. The frame rate and shutter speed, field of view range (zoom magnification), and illumination light quantity stored in the RAM 47 are read out to the photographing driver 48, the lens driving unit 36, and the illumination driver 52, respectively.

  The imaging driver 48 controls the operations of the image sensor 33 and the signal processing circuit 54 so that an endoscopic image is captured at the frame rate and shutter speed set by the control command. In addition, the lens driving unit 36 adjusts the zoom magnification of the objective optical system 32 so that an endoscopic image is captured in the visual field range (zoom magnification) set by the control command. In addition, the illumination driver 52 controls the drive current applied to the illumination light source unit 38 so that an endoscopic image is captured with the illumination light amount set by the control command. As a result, the CE 11 captures an endoscopic image under the capturing conditions set by the control command.

  Similarly, (1) detection of CE acceleration / posture information and detection of patient acceleration / posture information, (2) reception device until the end of the endoscopy and an end command is transmitted from the receiving device 12 to the CE 11 12, calculation of relative motion amount and determination of imaging conditions, (3) transmission of control commands from the receiving device 12 to the CE 11, (4) imaging by the CE 11, (6) transmission of image data from the CE 11 to the receiving device 12, ( 7) A series of processes consisting of storing image data by the receiving device 12 is continued.

  As described above, in the capsule endoscope system 2 of the present invention, the relative motion amount of the CE 11 with respect to the patient is calculated based on the acceleration detection result of the CE 11 and the acceleration detection result of the patient 10, and based on the calculation result. Since the imaging condition of CE11 is determined, even when the patient 10 moves during the endoscopy, the motion (acceleration) of the patient 10 is canceled and the motion amount of only the CE11 is accurately detected. Based on this, the photographing condition of CE 11 can be determined. As a result, when the patient moves during the endoscopy, the difference between the patient's movement and the CE's movement cannot be discriminated, and the imaging condition is set based on the calculation result of the CE movement amount different from the actual one. Decisions are prevented.

  Next, the capsule endoscope system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the capsule endoscope system 2 of the first embodiment, when the relative motion amount of the CE 11 calculated by the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 is small, the imaging conditions such as the frame rate are uniquely determined. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the patient 10 moves while the CE 11 is in the intestine, the intestinal movement becomes active, so the relative movement amount of the CE 11 suddenly increases, and the change in imaging conditions may not be in time for the change.

  Thus, in the capsule endoscope system according to the second embodiment, when an increase in the relative motion amount of the CE 11 is predicted from the motion of the patient 10, that is, the detection result of the patient acceleration sensor 19, Even when the amount of movement is small, the photographing condition of the CE 11 is changed. Since the capsule endoscope system of the second embodiment has basically the same configuration as the capsule endoscope system 2 of the first embodiment described above, refer to FIGS. I want.

  In the capsule endoscope system of the second embodiment, the detection result of the patient acceleration sensor 19 is input not only to the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 but also to the CPU 60. As described in the first embodiment, the shooting condition determination circuit 81 of the CPU 60 basically has shooting conditions (hereinafter referred to as normal shooting conditions) based on the calculation result of the relative motion amount of the CE 11 and the shooting condition table 82. ).

  However, when the relative motion amount of the CE 11 is less than the predetermined threshold value Tm and the patient acceleration is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value Ta, the imaging condition determination circuit 81 increases the frame rate over the normal imaging condition. (Hereinafter referred to as special shooting conditions). Note that the extent to which the frame rate is increased under special imaging conditions may be determined as appropriate. Alternatively, several threshold values Ta may be set, and the frame rate may be gradually increased as the patient acceleration increases.

  In addition, the imaging condition determination circuit 81 determines the imaging of the CE 11 when the relative motion amount of the CE 11 hardly increases even after a predetermined time elapses after the special imaging conditions are determined, for example, when the threshold Tm is not exceeded. Change the condition from the special shooting condition to the normal shooting condition. It should be noted that a clock circuit (not shown) of the CPU 60 may be used for counting the predetermined time.

  Next, the operation of the capsule endoscope system according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Since operations other than the recorder 17 are basically the same as those in the first embodiment (see FIG. 9), description and illustration are omitted. Further, the operation of the recorder 17 is basically the same as that of the first embodiment described above until the relative motion amount of the CE 11 is calculated, and thus the description and illustration are omitted.

  The imaging condition determination circuit 81 of the recorder 17 is either a condition in which the relative motion amount of the CE 11 input from the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 is equal to or greater than the threshold value Tm or the patient acceleration detected by the patient acceleration sensor 19 is less than the threshold value Ta. When the condition is satisfied, the normal photographing condition is determined based on the relative motion amount of the CE 11.

  Then, the imaging condition determination circuit 81 determines a special imaging condition in which the frame rate is increased as the imaging condition of the CE 11 when the condition that the relative motion amount of the CE 11 is less than the threshold value Tm and the patient acceleration is the threshold value Ta or more is satisfied. . When the previous relative motion amount is less than the threshold value Tm and the patient acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold value Ta for a predetermined time or longer, that is, after the previous special imaging condition is determined, the relative motion amount is the threshold value Tm. If the predetermined time or more has passed in the state of less than, the shooting condition determination circuit 81 determines the normal shooting conditions.

  The CPU 60 generates a control command according to the shooting conditions (normal shooting conditions, special shooting conditions) determined by the shooting condition determination circuit 81. The generated control command is wirelessly transmitted to the CE 11 as described above.

  After determining the special shooting conditions, the shooting condition determination circuit 81 starts timing using the clock circuit of the CPU 60 or the like. Then, if the relative motion amount does not increase even after a predetermined time has elapsed since the determination of the special shooting condition, the shooting condition determination circuit 81 returns the shooting condition of the CE 11 from the special shooting condition to the normal shooting condition. In the same manner, these series of processes are continued until the endoscopy is completed.

  As described above, in the capsule endoscope system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, even when the relative motion amount of CE11 is small, the relative motion amount of CE11 increases when the patient acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold value Ta. For example, even when the relative motion of the CE 11 in the intestine suddenly increases due to the movement of the intestine caused by the movement of the patient 10, for example, by determining the special imaging condition with the frame rate increased. The occurrence of spills can be suppressed.

  Further, if the relative movement amount of the CE 11 does not increase even after a predetermined time has elapsed after the special shooting conditions are determined, the shooting conditions of the CE 11 are returned to the normal shooting conditions. Even when the amount of movement does not increase, it is possible to prevent the shooting according to the special shooting conditions from continuing for a long time. That is, in the case of this example in which the frame rate is increased, an increase in the number of captured similar images can be suppressed.

  In the second embodiment, the case where only the frame rate is increased on the assumption that the relative motion amount of the CE 11 is increased has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Alternatively, the visual field range may be enlarged, the shutter speed increased, and the amount of illumination light may be increased. In this case, the above-described shooting condition table can be used. For example, the special photographing condition is set by increasing N by 1 or 2 from the normal photographing condition. Further, although the relative motion amount is exemplified as less than the threshold value Tm, the image capturing may be performed according to the special image capturing condition regardless of the relative motion amount. That is, it is only necessary to predict an increase in the relative motion amount from the patient acceleration and determine the imaging condition according to the predicted relative motion amount.

  Next, a capsule endoscope system according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the first and second embodiments, the recorder 17 calculates the relative motion amount of the CE 11 and determines the photographing condition of the CE 11. In the third embodiment, the relative motion amount is calculated and the photographing condition is calculated. The decision is made at the CE.

  As shown in FIG. 11, the CE 95 constituting the capsule endoscope system of the third embodiment is basically the same as the CE 11 of the first embodiment, and is functionally and structurally different from the first embodiment. About the same thing, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and the description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The CE 95 includes a relative motion amount calculation circuit 96 and a shooting condition determination circuit 97 having the same functions as the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 and the shooting condition determination circuit 81 of the recorder 17 (first embodiment), and a database 71 of the recorder 17. A corresponding memory 98 is provided. The memory 98 stores the above-described shooting condition table 82. The RAM, ROM, battery, power supply circuit, etc. are not shown. Further, the photographing condition determining circuit 97 is provided separately from the CPU 45, but may be provided in the CPU 45.

  The recorder of the third embodiment has the same configuration as the recorder 17 of the first embodiment described above except that the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70, the shooting condition determination circuit 81, and the database 71 are not provided. And illustration is abbreviate | omitted (refer FIG. 4).

  Next, the operation of the capsule endoscope system according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The recorder of the third embodiment modulates the detection results of the patient acceleration / patient posture detection sensors 19 and 20 by the modulation circuit 64 and then outputs the result to the antenna 16 via the transmission / reception circuit 79. Thereby, patient acceleration / patient posture information is wirelessly transmitted to the CE 95.

  The radio wave 14b received by the antenna 41 of the CE 95 is demodulated to the original patient acceleration / patient posture information by the demodulating circuit 50 through the transmitting / receiving circuit 55, and then input to the relative motion amount calculating circuit 96 through the CPU 45. Further, the CPU 45 controls the CE acceleration / posture detection sensors 42 and 43 so that the endoscope acceleration / posture information is detected in synchronization with the patient acceleration / patient posture information input from the recorder. The detection results of the CE acceleration / attitude detection sensors 42 and 43 are input to the relative motion amount calculation circuit 96.

  The relative motion amount calculation circuit 96 detects the relative motion amount of the CE 95 with respect to the patient 10, as described in the first embodiment (see FIG. 6). This detection result is input to the imaging condition determination circuit 97. The imaging condition determination circuit 97 refers to the imaging condition table 82 (see FIG. 7) stored in the memory 98 based on the relative movement amount of the CE 95 input from the relative motion amount calculation circuit 96, and determines the imaging conditions of the CE 95. decide.

  The shooting conditions determined by the shooting condition determination circuit 97 are temporarily stored in a RAM (not shown) or the like. Hereinafter, as described in the first embodiment, the CE 95 performs shooting according to the shooting conditions determined by the shooting condition determination circuit 97. Note that the image data captured by the CE 95 is wirelessly transmitted to the receiving device (recorder) and stored in the data storage 67 as described in the first embodiment.

  As described above, the capsule endoscope system according to the third embodiment of the present invention is basically the same as the first embodiment except that the CE 95 calculates the relative motion amount and determines the imaging conditions. The same effects as those described in the first embodiment can be obtained.

  In each of the embodiments described above, the field of view of the CEs 11 and 95 is changed by changing the zoom magnification of the objective optical system 32, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the visual field range of the CEs 11 and 95 may be varied by performing signal processing on the imaging signal obtained from the imaging device 33 by the electronic zoom method and subjecting the subject image (endoscopic image) to scaling.

  In the above embodiments, the imaging condition determination circuits 81 and 97 determine the imaging conditions of the CEs 11 and 95 with reference to the imaging condition table 82, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, an arithmetic expression indicating the relationship between the relative motion amount of CE11, 95 and the shooting conditions (frame rate, field of view range, exposure) is obtained in advance for each condition, and the relative motion amount of CE11, 95 is calculated using these arithmetic expressions. The shooting conditions may be determined from the above.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, the frame rate, field of view range (zoom magnification), and exposure (shutter speed, illumination light amount) have been described as examples of the photographing conditions of the CEs 11 and 95, but other CEs are used. Various conditions relating to shooting may be set as shooting conditions. For example, when there is an aperture, an aperture value may be entered in addition to the shutter speed and the amount of illumination light. Further, the illumination light quantity may be a voltage instead of an electric current.

  In each of the above embodiments, the case where the patient acceleration / posture detection sensors 19 and 20 are provided on the antenna 16 attached to the shield shirt 15 has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The two sensors 19 and 20 may be provided not on the patient 10 but on the patient 10 (particularly the torso), for example, the recorder 17 or the like. In addition to the antenna 16 and the recorder 17, both sensors 19 and 20 may be directly attached to the patient 10.

  In each of the above embodiments, either the recorder 17 (first and second embodiments) or the CE 95 (third embodiment) includes a relative motion amount calculation circuit and an imaging condition determination circuit (hereinafter simply referred to as both circuits). ) Is given as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, both circuits may be provided in the CE and the recorder. In this case, which of the two circuits respectively provided in the CE and the recorder should be used can be selected with a selection switch, for example. Further, one of both circuits may be provided in the CE, and the other may be provided in the recorder.

  Further, in each of the above embodiments, based on the detection result of the CE posture detection sensor 43, the posture and moving direction of C11 (same for CE95) in the reference coordinate system C1 can be determined. For this reason, when the CE 11 is moving in a specific direction with a specific posture, for example, when the direction and the moving direction of the CE 11 are both downward (when the moving direction and the shooting direction match), the frame You may perform at least any one of the increase in a rate, the expansion of a visual field range, the increase in shutter speed, and the increase in the amount of illumination light.

  In each of the above embodiments, the CE acceleration sensor 42 and the CE posture detection sensor 43 are described as examples. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the CE acceleration and the CE Various acceleration sensors that can detect both postures may be used. Similarly, various acceleration sensors that can detect both the acceleration and posture of the patient 10 may be used.

  In each of the above embodiments, the imaging condition determination circuits 81 and 97 determine the imaging condition of the CE 11 based on the relative motion amount of the CE 11 (same for CE 95), but the present invention is not limited to this, and the patient The imaging conditions may be determined based on the relative speed of CE 11 with respect to 10 (relative motion amount per unit time). In this case, a relative speed calculation circuit that integrates the relative acceleration of CE11 once to calculate the relative speed of CE11 may be provided.

  In each of the above embodiments, even if the relative motion amount of CE11 (same for CE95) decreases, the recorder 17 performs image processing and the like in the same manner on all the image data wirelessly received from CE11. It is stored in the data storage 67. When the relative movement amount of the CE 11 becomes small and the CE 11 stays in the body, a plurality of the same endoscopic images (similar images) are taken, so the number of similar images stored in the data storage 67 increases. End up. In this case, the doctor must repeat interpretation of the same endoscopic image, and the burden of interpretation increases. Also, a storage 67 having a large storage capacity must be prepared as the storage 67 for storing image data, which causes a cost increase.

  Therefore, in the recorder 100 shown in FIG. 13, based on the relative motion amount of the CE 11, the image data for interpretation used for interpretation by the doctor is selected in the WS 13 from among a plurality of image data wirelessly received from the CE 11. The recorder 100 has basically the same configuration as the recorder 17 of the first embodiment. However, the recorder 100 is provided with an image selection circuit 101 (image selection means) and an image compression circuit 102 (data amount reduction means). The battery 76, the power supply circuit 77, etc. are not shown.

  The image selection circuit 101 is sequentially inputted with the calculation result of the relative motion amount of the CE 11 from the relative motion amount calculation circuit 70 and is sequentially inputted with the image processed image data from the image processing circuit 66. The image selection circuit 101 extracts a series of image data input from the image processing circuit 66 every K (K is a natural number of 1 or more) frames, and outputs the extracted image data to the data storage 67 as image data for interpretation. To do.

  At this time, the image selection circuit 101 gradually decreases the value of K as the relative motion amount of the CE 11 increases. Therefore, when the amount of relative motion of the CE 11 is small, that is, when the CE 11 is stagnant in the body, the number of image data for image interpretation is reduced. Conversely, when the amount of relative motion of the CE 11 is large, that is, when the CE 11 is moving smoothly in the body, the number of image interpretation image data extractions increases. Note that the method for extracting (selecting) image data for interpretation is not limited to this, and any method that increases the number of selected image data for interpretation as the relative motion amount of the CE 11 increases. There is no particular limitation. For example, it is possible to extract all the relative motion amounts that are not more than a threshold value but not more than the threshold value.

  Further, the remaining image data not selected by the image selection circuit 101, that is, image data determined to be a similar image (hereinafter referred to as unnecessary image data) is sequentially output to the image compression circuit 102. The image compression circuit 102 performs compression processing on the unnecessary image data in an arbitrary compression format, and sequentially outputs the compressed image data subjected to the compression processing to the data storage 67. The data storage 67 stores the compressed image data from the image compression circuit 102 separately from the image data for interpretation. It should be noted that the amount of unnecessary image data is not limited to compression, and may be reduced, for example.

  As described above, since the image data for interpretation to be used for interpretation is selected from the plurality of image data wirelessly received from the CE 11 based on the relative motion amount of the CE 11, an endoscopic image that is read by the doctor. The amount of is reduced. Thereby, the burden on the doctor who interprets the endoscopic image can be reduced, and as a result, the time required for interpretation and diagnosis can be shortened. Further, unnecessary image data that has not been selected as image data for interpretation can be stored in the data storage 67 after being subjected to compression processing, so that data storage 67 having a smaller storage capacity than before can be used. As a result, the cost can be reduced.

  In the first embodiment and the like, the control command is generated and transmitted for each shooting. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and shooting is performed several times under the same conditions. It may be. Further, the photographing condition may be determined every predetermined number of times or every predetermined time. In addition, when the imaging condition newly determined by the imaging condition determination circuit 81 is equal to or more than the current CE11 imaging condition + α or −α, the CE11 imaging condition may be changed.

  In each of the above embodiments, the case where the subject performing the capsule endoscopy is a person has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and animals other than humans, etc. May be a subject.

It is the schematic which shows the structure of a capsule endoscope system (1st Embodiment). It is sectional drawing which shows the internal structure of a capsule endoscope. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a capsule endoscope. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a recorder. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating that the coordinate system of CE acceleration sensor and the coordinate system of a patient acceleration sensor may differ. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the calculation process of the relative motion amount of the capsule endoscope with respect to a patient. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating an example of an imaging condition table. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of a workstation. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the setting process of the imaging condition of a capsule endoscope in a capsule endoscope system. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the setting process of the imaging condition of a capsule endoscope in the capsule endoscope system of 2nd Embodiment. It is a block which shows the electrical constitution of the capsule endoscope of the capsule endoscope system of 3rd Embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the setting process of the imaging condition of a capsule endoscope in the capsule endoscope system of 3rd Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the electrical structure of the recorder of other embodiment which selects the image data used for an interpretation from the image data radio-received from the capsule endoscope based on the calculation result of the relative motion amount of the capsule endoscope. is there.

Explanation of symbols

2 Capsule Endoscopy System 10 Patient 11 Capsule Endoscope (CE)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 Receiver 15 Shield shirt 16 Antenna 17 Recorder 19 Patient acceleration sensor 20 Patient posture detection sensor 42 CE acceleration sensor 43 CE posture detection sensor 70 Relative motion amount calculation circuit 81 Imaging condition determination circuit

Claims (13)

A capsule endoscope that is swallowed into a subject and images a site to be observed in the subject, and is carried by the subject and connected to the capsule endoscope by wireless communication, and the capsule endoscope In a capsule endoscope system including a receiving device that wirelessly receives and stores the endoscopic image obtained in (1),
An endoscope acceleration detecting means provided on the capsule endoscope for detecting acceleration of the capsule endoscope;
A subject acceleration detecting means provided in the receiving device for detecting the acceleration of the subject carrying the receiving device;
The capsule endoscope is provided in at least one of the capsule endoscope and the receiving device, and the capsule endoscope is relative to the subject based on the detection results of the endoscope acceleration detecting unit and the subject acceleration detecting unit. A capsule endoscope system comprising: a relative motion amount detection means for detecting a proper motion amount. An imaging condition of the capsule endoscope is determined based on a relative movement amount of the capsule endoscope that is provided in at least one of the capsule endoscope and the receiving device and is detected by the relative movement amount detection unit. Photographing condition determining means to perform,
The capsule according to claim 1, further comprising: an imaging control unit that is provided in the capsule endoscope and causes the capsule endoscope to perform the imaging according to the imaging condition determined by the imaging condition determination unit. Endoscope system.   The capsule endoscope system according to claim 2, wherein the imaging condition includes at least one of a frame rate, a field-of-view range, and an exposure when the imaging is performed.   4. The capsule endoscope system according to claim 3, wherein the imaging condition determination unit determines the imaging condition so that the frame rate increases as the amount of relative motion increases.   5. The capsule endoscope system according to claim 3, wherein the imaging condition determination unit determines the imaging condition so that the field-of-view range is enlarged as the amount of relative motion increases.   The imaging condition determining means determines the imaging condition so that the imaging shutter speed increases as the relative motion amount increases, and the amount of illumination light that illuminates the observation site increases. The capsule endoscope system according to any one of claims 3 to 5.   The imaging condition determining means determines that the relative motion amount is large when the subject acceleration detected by the subject acceleration detection means is equal to or greater than a predetermined value even when the relative motion amount is relatively small. The capsule endoscope system according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the imaging condition is determined as a special imaging condition according to a case where the amount of relative motion is large.   If the relative motion amount does not increase even after a predetermined time has elapsed after determining the special photographing condition, the photographing condition determining means determines the photographing condition based on the relative motion amount at that time. The capsule endoscope system according to claim 7, wherein the capsule endoscope system is determined again. The receiving device includes an antenna for performing wireless communication with the capsule endoscope, and a storage device for storing the endoscopic image wirelessly received via the antenna,
9. The object acceleration detection means is provided in the antenna, and the relative motion amount detection means and the imaging condition determination means are provided in the storage device. A capsule endoscope system according to claim 1. An endoscope posture detecting means provided on the capsule endoscope for detecting the posture of the capsule endoscope in a subject;
A subject posture detecting means provided in the receiving device for detecting the posture of the subject carrying the receiving device;
10. The relative movement amount detection unit detects the relative movement amount in consideration of detection results of the endoscope posture detection unit and the subject posture detection unit. The capsule endoscope system according to Item.   Based on the amount of relative movement, the endoscope image for interpretation used for interpretation is selected from the plurality of endoscope images wirelessly received by the reception device from the capsule endoscope based on the amount of relative motion. The capsule endoscope system according to claim 1, further comprising an image selection unit.   The capsule endoscope system according to claim 11, wherein the image selection unit increases the number of selected endoscopic images for interpretation as the amount of relative movement increases.   Data amount reduction with respect to the endoscopic image that is not selected by the image selecting unit from among the plurality of endoscopic images provided in the receiving device and wirelessly received by the receiving device from the capsule endoscope 13. The capsule endoscope system according to claim 11 or 12, further comprising a data amount reduction unit that performs processing.

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