JP3133768B2 - Endoscope imaging device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to control of photographing of an endoscope image photographing apparatus for photographing an image displayed on a monitor using a camera.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An endoscope image photographing apparatus (for example, a hard copy) is used as a series of apparatuses of an endoscope system, and an electronic endoscope apparatus is an electronic endoscope inserted into a body to be observed. A CCD (Charge Coupled Device), which is a solid-state image sensor, is provided at the tip of an electronic scope.
The video signal obtained in D is supplied to the processor 1 in the main body shown in FIG. The main processor 1 performs predetermined image processing on the video signal, and supplies the processed RGB signal, synchronization signal, and the like to the monitor 2 of the CRT as a video signal. An image of the inside of the observed body is displayed.

An image photographing device 4 is arranged at a position where the screen 3 of the monitor 2 can be photographed. When photographing, the image displayed on the screen 3 is temporarily frozen. , The camera shutter of the image capturing device 4 is released. Therefore, the image captured by the electronic endoscope can be stored as a photograph on a film when necessary.

[0004]

However, in the conventional endoscopic image photographing apparatus, since the shutter speed of the apparatus (camera) is automatically set by the brightness of the screen 3 of the monitor 2, opening and closing of the shutter is performed. However, there is a problem that the scanning cycle of the monitor 2 does not coincide with that of the monitor 2 and a good photograph cannot always be taken. That is, one screen is displayed on the monitor 2 by scanning every frame in synchronization with the synchronization signal. As shown in the screen 3 in FIG. Starting with scan line 102
Is completed, the image of the area shown in FIG. If the A region is missing in the second field scan in the interlaced scan,
The image quality of that part on the photograph will be degraded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope image photographing apparatus in which the opening and closing timing of a shutter is adjusted to the scanning timing to prevent lack of a photographic image and deterioration of image quality. Is to do.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an image pickup apparatus comprising:
In an endoscope image photographing apparatus for photographing a freeze image projected on a monitor onto a film by opening and closing a photographing shutter, a shutter operation signal output from an endoscope main body and a video vertical synchronization output from the main body to a monitor. A control circuit for inputting a signal and forming a shutter operation signal for obtaining image data for an n-frame (n: integer) scanning period in synchronization with the vertical scanning cycle of the monitor based on the two signals; The photographing shutter is controlled to open and close.

[0007]

According to the above arrangement, when the shutter button of the operation section of the endoscope is pressed, a shutter operation signal is input to the image photographing apparatus, but the image photographing apparatus receives a video synchronization signal (vertical synchronization signal). The shutter operation signal and the video synchronization signal output a shutter operation signal synchronized with the scanning cycle. Therefore, the shutter of the camera is opened until all the scans of n frames have been completed, and the occurrence of a missing area on the screen can be prevented.

[0008]

FIG. 1 shows an electronic endoscope system using an endoscope image photographing apparatus according to an embodiment. In the same manner as in the prior art, an RGB video signal and a synchronizing signal SYNC) is output to the monitor 2, and the image of the inside of the observed body is displayed in color on the screen 3 of the monitor 2. The image photographing device 4 is provided with a photographing lens 5, and a shutter 6 is provided on the rear side of the photographing lens 5. The shutter 6 has a shutter drive 7 for opening and closing the shutter and outputs a shutter operation signal. Control circuit 8 is connected. The control circuit 8 inputs a shutter operation signal 201 output from the electronic endoscope to the main processor 1 and a vertical synchronization signal (V-SYNC) output from the main processor 1 to the monitor 2.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the operation section of the electronic endoscope. The operation section includes an insertion section 11a having a CCD built in at the tip and inserted into the body to be observed and a connection section 11b connected to the main body. An operation section 12 is provided at the connection portion. The operation section 12 has an operation lever 13 for controlling the direction of the endoscope tip, an air / water button 14, a water absorption button 15, a VTR button 16, and a hard copy (photographing). Button 17 is provided. Therefore, when the hard copy button 17 is pressed, the shutter operation signal is input to the control circuit 8 in the image photographing device 4 via the main processor 1.

The embodiment has the above configuration, and its operation will be described below with reference to FIG. When the VTR button 16 in FIG. 2 is pressed, the VTR image captured by the CCD is displayed on the screen 3 of the monitor 2 through the processing of the main processor 1.
Displayed to Thereafter, when the hard copy button 17 is pressed once, the screen displayed on the monitor 2 is frozen and a photograph can be taken, and when the hard copy button 17 is pressed once, the screen shown in FIG. The shutter operation signal 201 shown in ()) is output to the main processor 1. Then, the main processor 1 receives the shutter operation signal 2
01 is output to the control circuit 8 of the image photographing apparatus 4. The control circuit 8 simultaneously outputs the vertical synchronizing signal 202 shown in FIG. FIG. 3C synchronized with a synchronization signal for one-field scanning after the shutter operation signal 201 is input.
Is generated.

The shutter operation signal 203 is output from the control circuit 8 to the shutter drive 7, and the shutter operation signal 203 causes the shutter drive 7 to perform a shutter opening operation and a closing operation. Is released. Therefore, a good quality picture can be taken without closing the shutter during scanning. The opening and closing of the shutter is performed in synchronization with the vertical synchronizing signal, and can be adjusted to a scanning period of one frame, a scanning period obtained by adding one field to one frame, or another scanning time by the vertical synchronizing signal. In this case, the photographing conditions on the camera side and the display conditions on the monitor are adjusted so that a good photograph is formed at a shutter speed in a predetermined scanning period.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to an example in which the present invention is applied to an electronic endoscope, the present invention can also be applied to other endoscope apparatuses which display images on a monitor.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The image projected on the monitor by the solid-state image sensor of the endoscope
Device that captures the frozen image on a film,
A shutter operation signal from the endoscope main body and a video vertical synchronizing signal output from the main body to the monitor are input, and the two signals are used to synchronize with the vertical scanning cycle of the monitor to obtain image data for n frame scanning periods. Since a shutter operation signal is formed and the opening and closing of the shutter of the camera is controlled by the shutter operation signal, it is possible to take a good photograph without missing or deteriorating the image due to the mismatch between the shutter timing and the screen scanning timing. There are advantages.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an electronic endoscope system using an endoscope image capturing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an endoscope operation unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing operation signal waveforms of the device of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional electronic endoscope system.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining scanning of a screen displayed on a monitor and an image capturing range.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Main body processor, 2 ... Monitor, 4 ... Image photographing device, 5 ... Shutter, 7 ... Shutter drive, 8 ... Control circuit.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-24377 (JP, A) JP-A-61-51134 (JP, A) JP-A-60-232537 (JP, A) 232125 (JP, A) JP-A-61-194979 (JP, A) JP-A-61-10370 (JP, A) JP-A-60-232125 (JP, A) Actually open JP-A-61-103102 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Application Showa 59-152880 (JP, U) Japanese Utility Model Application Showa 61-11137 (JP, U) Tokuhyo Hei 4-500321 (JP, A) International Publication 89/11252 (WO, A1)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An image is captured by a solid-state image sensor of an endoscope ,
In an endoscopic image photographing apparatus for photographing a freeze image projected on a monitor onto a film by opening and closing a photographing shutter, a shutter operation signal output from an endoscope main body and a video vertical synchronization output from the main body to a monitor. Input the signal,
A control circuit for forming a shutter operation signal for obtaining image data for n frame scanning periods in synchronization with the vertical scanning cycle of the monitor based on these two signals is provided, and opening and closing of a photographing shutter is controlled by the shutter operation signal. Endoscope image capturing device.