JP2661182B2 - Image position adjustment method for electronic endoscopes - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an electronic device in which an image of an observation target is photoelectrically converted by an image sensor, and this signal is transmitted to a processor to be displayed on a monitor screen. The present invention relates to an image position adjustment method for setting an image position on a monitor screen to a predetermined position in an endoscope system.

[Prior Art] An electronic endoscope is equipped with an imaging device such as a CCD at the tip of an insertion portion, captures an image of an observation target portion by the imaging device, performs photoelectric conversion, and converts the video signal into the endoscope. The data is transmitted to the processor connected to the mirror, and the image is processed by the processor, so that the image is displayed on the monitor screen. Here, the image pickup device is not used as the entire image receiving region, but only a part of the substantially circular or square portion is used as an image pickup region for actually taking an image, and other portions of the image pickup device are masked. It has become. The video signal thus formed is displayed on the monitor screen, for example, at the center thereof, and various data are displayed at a position adjacent to the video. Has also become.

However, the position of the imaging region in the imaging device is not constant depending on the type of endoscope and the like. That is, the arrangement position of the observation optical system including the objective lens and the prism, and the arrangement position of the imaging element and its substrate are not necessarily fixed positions because of the restrictions imposed by other internal components in the endoscope. It is not possible to arrange an imaging region, which causes a variation in the position of the imaging region in the imaging device.

However, in order to display an image at a fixed image position on a monitor screen based on an image signal obtained in an imaging region having variation, conventionally, an image position correction circuit is provided in a processor, and the image position correction circuit is provided. The correction circuit records the image position correction data corresponding to various endoscopes, and according to the type of endoscope connected to this processor, the position of the image pickup area of the image sensor and the image position on the monitor screen are determined. The difference was corrected. In order to identify the type of endoscope connected to this processor, an ID terminal for identifying the type of endoscope is provided in a connector of the endoscope connected to the processor, and image position correction is performed by the ID terminal. The data is selected, and the timing of the vertical synchronizing signal and the horizontal synchronizing signal is adjusted so that the image position on the monitor screen becomes a constant position in the image position correction circuit built in the processor based on the correction data thus selected. To do.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, in recent years, various endoscopes have been used according to the type of examination / diagnosis, and ID terminals in all of these endoscopes are provided with a processor. If the connection is made to the terminal, the number of terminals of the connection connector and the terminal connection portion on the processor side must be increased, and there is a disadvantage that the configuration of the terminal connection portion in the processor becomes large.
In addition, depending on the preference of the operator who operates the endoscope, the image of the observation target portion is displayed not only at the center position of the monitor screen but also at a position shifted left and right or up and down on the monitor screen. It may be preferable to display various data side by side. However, in the above-described prior art, it is impossible to display an image of the observation target portion at an arbitrary position on the monitor screen due to the operator's preference or the like.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims at connecting various endoscopes to a processor and displaying an image of an observation target portion at a desired position on a monitor screen. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic endoscope image position adjusting method which is capable of adjusting the image position.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an endoscope having an image pickup unit having an image pickup device having a limited image pickup area, and an image pickup of the endoscope. A processor for processing a video signal from the means, and a monitor screen for displaying a video in a predetermined video area based on the signal processed by the processor, wherein the processor has a different imaging area by the mask A plurality of endoscopes having imaging means can be connected and each of these endoscopes, in order to display an image obtained by forming an image on each imaging area in a predetermined image area on a monitor screen, Image position adjusting means for recording data for image position correction for adjusting the difference between the image pickup area of each endoscope by the image pickup means and the image area of the monitor screen is provided. , The professional A vertical synchronization signal and a horizontal synchronization signal are fetched from a processor, and the timing of the vertical synchronization signal and the horizontal synchronization signal is shifted to adjust the video position displayed on the monitor screen to a predetermined position. The feature is.

[Operation] The image position adjustment circuit provided in the endoscope is restricted by the positional relationship between the imaging device of the endoscope and an observation optical system for forming an image of the observation target on the imaging device. The image position correction data for adjusting the difference between the imaging region to be displayed and the video region displayed on the monitor screen is recorded. So, connect this endoscope to the processor,
The endoscope is inserted into a patient's body, an image in the body cavity is formed on an image sensor, and photoelectric conversion is performed to form a video signal. This video signal is input to the processor, and after performing predetermined image processing, is displayed on the monitor screen. The vertical synchronization signal and the horizontal synchronization signal related to the video signal formed by the processor are once inside. Returned to the endoscope side,
It is input into an image position adjustment circuit provided in the endoscope. The image position adjustment circuit adjusts the timing of each of the vertical and horizontal synchronization signals so that the image is displayed at a predetermined image position on the monitor screen. The video signal in the state where the vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals have been adjusted in this way is re-input to the processor, and further necessary signal processing is performed in the processor, and then displayed on the monitor screen. Is done.

Thus, since the adjustment of the image position between the imaging area and the video area is performed on the endoscope side, a number of ID terminals are provided in the connector of the endoscope, and the processor is provided with Without providing a large number of connection parts connected to each of these ID terminals, a specific image of the observation target part in the imaging device of each endoscope is displayed on a monitor screen in a certain image area. Can be displayed. Further, even if the imaging region of the imaging device is the same, it is possible to display an image at an arbitrary position on the monitor screen according to the personality of the operator.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, FIG. 1 shows the entire configuration of the endoscope system. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an endoscope, 10 denotes a processor, and the endoscope 1 includes a main body operation section 2 and an insertion section 3 connected to the main body operation section 2, and the insertion section 3 It is configured by sequentially connecting a flexible portion 3a, an angle portion 3b, and a hard distal end portion 3c from the side connected to the main body operation unit 2. Further, a cord 4 is connected to the main body operation unit 2.
A connector 5 is provided at the other end, and the connector 5 is connected to the connection portion 11 of the processor 10.

A well-known illumination window and an observation window are provided in the distal end hard portion 3c of the insertion portion 3, and an image of the observation target portion incident on the observation window is formed by an optical system 20 including an objective lens and a prism (FIG. 3). ) Is formed on an image pickup device 21 composed of a CCD or the like. The video signal of the observation target portion obtained by performing the photoelectric conversion by the image pickup device 21 is transmitted to the processor via the connection connector 5 of the cord 4 of the endoscope 1.
The information is transmitted to the processor 10, the image is subjected to predetermined image processing in the processor 10, and then displayed on the monitor screen 31 of the monitor device 30.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, in the electronic endoscope, instead of using the entire imaging device 21 as an imaging region, only a part of the imaging device 21 is used as an imaging region A. Like that. On the other hand, the image area B of the image sensor 21
The image position between the imaging area A and the video area B is adjusted so as to be at a fixed position, for example, the center position of the monitor screen 31 irrespective of the position.

Therefore, a method for adjusting the image position will be described with reference to FIG. In the following, R, G, B
In the following description, it is assumed that the video signal of each color is read out by a frame sequential method, but the video signal reading method according to the present invention is not limited to this.

As is apparent from FIG.
The image sensor 20 is driven based on the signal of the image sensor drive circuit 40 provided in the image sensor R, G, and B color signals are read out in a frame sequential manner, and this signal is transmitted to the processor 10. ,
By inputting to the video processor 41 and the synchronizing signal generating circuit 42, a composite signal composed of each color signal, luminance signal and synchronizing signal is formed. Then, the vertical synchronizing signal VD and the horizontal synchronizing signal HD in the composite signal are once returned to the connector 5 of the endoscope 1 and input to the image position adjusting circuit 43 installed in the connector 5. Here, in the image position adjustment circuit 43, in order to display an image at the position of the imaging region A in the imaging device 20 on the monitor screen 20, for example, at the center thereof, the imaging region A and the video region B And the timing of the vertical synchronizing signal VD and the horizontal synchronizing signal HD is shifted.

The image position is adjusted as described above. The output signal from the image position adjustment circuit 43 is transmitted to the processor 20 again, input to the synchronization signal generation circuit 42, and the synchronization signal is readjusted. . Further, this signal is separated into a video signal of each color of R, G, B and a synchronizing signal in a composite signal processing circuit 44, and each video signal is digitized by an A / D converter 45, and R, G , B are stored in the respective field memories 46. When the R, G, and B video data for one field are stored in the filled memory 46, when the vertical and horizontal synchronization signals are input from the composite signal processing circuit 44 to the video encoder 47, the memory driver The video signal of each color is read out from the R, G, B field memory 46 via 48, and the R, G, B color signal, luminance signal and synchronization signal are output and displayed on the monitor screen 31. Will be.

As described above, the imaging area A and the image area B on the endoscope 1 side
Since the position correction between the endoscope and the endoscope is performed, it is not necessary to provide an ID terminal as shown in the related art. Monitor screen when connected to
An image of the observation target portion can be projected on the same position on the image 31. Also, even in the same endoscope, by individually recording data for image position correction in the image position adjustment unit, even if the imaging area of the imaging unit side of the endoscope is the same position, Depending on the endoscope, the video can be displayed at different positions on the monitor screen,
For example, according to the preference of the operator who uses each endoscope,
An image area on the monitor screen can be set as desired.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the imaging device provided in the endoscope does not use the entire region as a region where an image is displayed, but uses only a part of the region as an imaging region. In addition, the imaging area of the imaging device is not uniform depending on the type of endoscope. When a plurality of endoscopes having different imaging areas can be connected to the processor, the image area displayed on the monitor screen is If it is different for each endoscope, it becomes very difficult to see. However, as in the present invention, the timing of the vertical synchronizing signal and the horizontal synchronizing signal is shifted so that the image position displayed on the monitor screen is predetermined. By adjusting so that the endoscope is positioned at the same position, the video is always displayed at the same position on the monitor screen, regardless of which endoscope is connected to the processor. By providing the endoscope with an image position adjusting means that records data for correcting the image position that adjusts the difference between the image area and the image area of the monitor screen, the imaging area can be adjusted to the image area, and It is also possible to adjust the position of the image area itself according to the endoscope, and such processing is performed between the image position adjusting means and the processor.
It can be performed only by transmitting and receiving the vertical synchronization signal and the horizontal synchronization signal, and it is not necessary to provide many ID terminals to identify all the endoscopes that may be connected to the processor. An image can be displayed at an arbitrary position.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an endoscope system, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between an imaging region and a video region, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a position adjusting mechanism. 1: Endoscope, 2: Main unit operation section, 3: Insertion section, 4: Cord, 5: Connector, 10: Processor, 20: Image sensor, 30: Monitor screen, 40: Image sensor drive circuit, 41: Video Processor, 42:
Synchronous signal generation circuit, 43: image position adjustment circuit, 44: composite signal processing circuit, 45: A / D converter, 46: field memory, 47: video encoder, 48: memory driver.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An endoscope having an image pickup device provided with an image pickup device having a limited image pickup area, a processor for processing a video signal from the image pickup device of the endoscope, and a signal processed by the processor. And a monitor screen for displaying an image in a predetermined image area based on the image processing apparatus, and the processor can be connected to a plurality of endoscopes each having an image pickup unit having a different image pickup area by the mask. In order to display an image obtained by forming an image on each imaging region in a predetermined image region on a monitor screen, the endoscope includes an imaging region of an imaging device of each endoscope and an image region of the monitor screen. Image position adjustment means for recording image position correction data for adjusting the difference between the position and the image position adjustment means. The image position adjustment means fetches a vertical synchronization signal and a horizontal synchronization signal from the processor, and By shifting the timing of the vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal, an electronic endoscope image position adjustment method of the image position and adjusting to a predetermined position to be displayed on the monitor screen.