JP3251076B2 - Endoscope device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope device,
An observation range changing means for changing the observation range of the test part;
Change the proportion of the display area of the part to be displayed in the data screen.
Endoscope device provided with a display section size changing means for
You.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, endoscopes have been widely used in the medical and industrial fields. For example, in colorectal examination, it is generally employed to insert an endoscope up to the four shoulders first, and then perform a procedure such as examination of a polyp at the time of removal and resection of the found polyp.

In this case, the insertion operation is performed by inserting the folds in the large intestine while pressing the folds against the intestinal wall, or by inserting the folds with the tip of the endoscope while approaching the folds. If the viewing angle is narrowed (for example, 80 ° to 130 °) rather than visible, for example, the intestinal wall moves too fast around the screen and becomes conspicuous.

On the other hand, when the lumen is inspected while being removed, a wider viewing angle (for example, 130 ° to 180 °)
However, there is little oversight of the lesion site in the subject. In other words, if the field of view is narrow, the back side of the fold in the intestine may not be clearly seen, and the lesion site may be overlooked. Therefore, what can be inspected by performing a visual field conversion is desired.

When the viewing angle conversion is performed, if the screen size on the monitor is the same, and if the distance between the objective lens and the test portion is the same, the position of the test portion is wider at the wide angle than at the narrow angle. Each part looks small.

[0006]

As described above, when the viewing angle is converted and the viewing angle is widened at the time of removal, for example, a lesion that appears large at a narrow angle at the time of insertion looks small at the time of removal, and in some cases, the lesion may appear small at the time of removal. It could also be a serious accident to overlook the lesion.

[0007] Further, the same drawback occurs when an inspection is performed using an endoscope having a zoom mechanism disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-177214.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an endoscope apparatus which has good insertability into the large intestine and the like and is suitable for examination of a lesion.

[0009]

An endoscope apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an objective optical system disposed at a distal end of an elongated insertion portion;
A solid-state imaging device that photoelectrically converts an optical image based on the objective optical system, and at least a part of a lens of the objective optical system is changed to change an observation range of a test portion formed on the solid-state imaging device. An observation range changing unit to be changed, a monitor having a screen including a display unit and a non-display unit for displaying the inspection unit, and the display in response to a change in the observation range of the inspection unit by the observation range changing unit. Display unit size changing means for changing the size of the unit, and changing the ratio of the display unit in the screen , the observation range changing means
When the observation range is changed more widely,
The ratio of the display unit to be used is increased.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 4 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows an entire configuration of an endoscope apparatus of the first embodiment, FIG. 2 shows a configuration of a signal processing unit, and FIGS. Indicates an observation image displayed on the monitor.

As shown in FIG. 1, an endoscope apparatus 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention has an electronic endoscope 2 provided with an image pickup means, and a light source unit for supplying illumination light to the electronic endoscope 2. A video processor 5 having a built-in signal processing unit 4 for performing signal processing on the imaging means 3 and a monitor 6 for displaying an image captured by the imaging means when a video signal output from the video processor 5 is input. It has.

The electronic endoscope 2 has an elongated insertion section 7, a wide operation section 8 provided at a base end of the insertion section 7, and extends from a side portion of the operation section 8 to the outside. And a universal cable 9. At the end of the universal cable 9, a connector 11 detachable from the video processor 5 is provided.
Is provided.

The insertion portion 7 is provided with a rigid tip component 12.
A bending portion connected to the rear end of the distal end portion 12 and capable of bending in the up, down, left, and right directions; and a long flexible tube connected to the rear end of the bending portion. The rear end of the flexible tube is fixed to the operation unit 8. The light guide 1 is provided in the insertion section 7 and the universal cable 9.
When the connector 3 is inserted and the connector 11 is connected to the video processor 5, the illumination light of the lamp 14 constituting the light source unit 3 is supplied to the end face of the light guide 13.

The illumination light transmitted by the light guide 13 is emitted forward from an end face on the distal end side of the insertion portion 7 via an illumination lens 15 attached to an illumination window. The target portion illuminated with the illumination light emitted through the illumination lens 15 is irradiated by an objective lens 16 attached to an observation window adjacent to the illumination window by a solid-state imaging device such as a CCD (CCD) arranged at an image forming position. An image of the subject is formed at 17 (hereinafter abbreviated as SID).

The SID 17 is connected to the signal processing section 4 via a signal line 18 inserted through the insertion section 7 and the universal cable 9, and the image signal photoelectrically converted by the SID 17 is subjected to signal processing via the signal line 18. It is input to the unit 4.
A standard video signal is generated by the signal processing unit 4, and an observation image is displayed on a display screen of the monitor 6.

In this embodiment, at least one of the plurality of lenses constituting the objective lens 16 is
Is a movable lens 21 that can move in the optical axis direction. The movable lens 21 is provided with a tip of a wire 22 inserted through the insertion section 7, and the other end of the movable lens 21 is a wire provided on the operation section 8. Connected to the driving device 23 and the wire 22
By moving the moving lens 21 so that the optical system of the objective lens 16 can be changed from a wide angle to a narrow angle, and observing a test portion (object) formed on the imaging surface of the SID 17. The range can be changed.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the wire driving device 23 has a motor 23a for moving the wire 22 in the axial direction of the insertion section 7 by winding the wire 22 on a pulley or unwinding the wire 22, for example. The motor 23a is, for example, a seesaw switch 24 provided on the operation unit 8.
When one end of the movable lens (see FIG. 1) is pressed, a power supply (not shown) and the motor 23a are conducted, and the motor 23a is rotated in one direction to wind up the wire 22 so that the moving lens is moved. 21 is moved backward, and the objective lens 16 is moved.
Is set to the state of wide-angle observation. In this wide-angle observation state, the observation range formed on the SID 17 is wide.

On the other hand, when the other end of the seesaw switch 24 is pressed, the motor 23a rotates in the reverse direction to draw out the wire 22, move the moving lens 21 forward, and move the objective lens 16
Can be set to a narrow-angle observation state. In this narrow-angle observation state, the observation range formed on the SID 17 becomes narrow. A rotary encoder 23b for detecting a winding amount of the wire is attached to the motor 23a.
This rotary encoder 23b is connected to the signal processing unit 4 via a signal line 25.

In this embodiment, the display screen size on the monitor 6 is changed according to the setting of the angle of view of the objective lens 16 or the change of the observation range. More specifically, when the observation range is widened (enlarged) and displayed on the monitor 6 as it is, the size of the display image itself is displayed relatively smaller than when the observation range is narrowed. If the observation range is widened, the size of the display screen will depend on the extent of the widening of the observation range, causing problems such as difficulty in finding the lesion or difficulty in determining the state of the lesion. Is configured to solve this problem.

For this reason, the signal processing section 4 has, for example, the configuration shown in FIG. The image signal of the SID 17 is input to the pre-processing circuit 27, and after being amplified, subjected to processing such as separation into a luminance signal and a chrominance signal or separation into each color signal component, and then input to the interpolation circuit 28. Is done. On the other hand, the output signal of the rotary encoder 23b is input to the viewing angle information determination circuit 29.

The viewing angle information determining circuit 29 determines viewing angle information (or observation image range information) from the winding amount of the wire 22 detected by the rotary encoder 23b.
Viewing angle information is used as information for generating a display image when the observation image of the SID 17 is displayed on the monitor 6.

A viewing angle information discriminating circuit 29 interpolates coefficient information necessary for generating a display image whose size is enlarged in accordance with the size of the viewing angle or the size of the observation image range in the SID 17, for example. 28.

The interpolation circuit 28 uses coefficient information corresponding to the viewing angle information output from the viewing angle information discriminating circuit 29 with respect to the image signal (corresponding to the observation image of the SID 17) output from the pre-processing circuit 27. Interpolation is performed to generate an interpolated image signal that is enlarged when the image is displayed on the monitor 6 (the observation image of the SID 17). The interpolated image signal is temporarily stored in the memory 31.

The interpolated image signal stored in the memory 31 is read out at a fixed period in synchronization with the synchronizing signal, converted into a standard video signal through the post-processing circuit 32, and converted into a standard video signal.
The observation image picked up by the SID 17 is enlarged and displayed on the monitor 6 in accordance with the extent to which the observation range is widened.

In this embodiment, even when the viewing angle is changed, the interpolation circuit 28 interpolates the captured observation image, and the display size of the image of the object displayed on the monitor 6 depends on the viewing angle. It is displayed not to be displayed.
For example, when the viewing angle is increased and the imaging range is increased, the image of the object within the imaging range becomes relatively smaller than when the viewing angle is small. By performing an interpolation process of enlarging the image according to the degree of enlargement, an interpolated image in which the image in the observation image range is enlarged is generated, and displayed at the same size as when, for example, the viewing angle is set small, and the observation image range is displayed. Is displayed on the monitor 6 without performing the reduction.

In other words, the display area on the monitor 6 is changed according to the viewing angle. That is, when the viewing angle is increased, the display area is increased in proportion to this.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The insertion section 7 of the electronic endoscope 2 is inserted so as to be able to observe the test section and the like. When changing the viewing angle of the objective lens 16, the wire driving device 23 is operated to move the wire 22 forward and backward to move the movable lens 21 along the optical axis direction.

Whether the moving lens 21 is set to move to the wide-angle side or the narrow-angle side is determined by the view angle in the signal processing unit 4 via the signal line 25 from the wire driving device 23 (the encoder 23b therein). The information is transmitted to the information discrimination circuit 29, and the viewing angle information discrimination circuit 29 receives the information and outputs a coefficient for changing the display screen size to the interpolation circuit. The interpolation circuit 28 performs interpolation using the coefficient, generates an interpolation image corresponding to the display screen size, passes through the memory 31 and the post-processing circuit 32 to a video signal corresponding to the interpolation image, and outputs the video signal to the monitor 6. .

In the case of this embodiment, when the insertion section 7 is inserted into, for example, the large intestine, the movable lens 21 is set to a narrow-angle observation state, and only the lumen is observed to improve the insertability. At the time of withdrawal, as shown in FIG.
Is set to the state of wide-angle observation so that the user can see the image.

When the video signal generated by the interpolation circuit 28 or the like is displayed on the monitor 6, an observation image 37 is displayed as in a narrow-angle display screen 36a in FIG. 4, the observation image 37 like the wide-angle display screen 36b.
Is displayed, and is displayed larger than the narrow-angle display screen 36a. In this way, polyp 3 can be used at both narrow and wide angles.
5 lesions are displayed in approximately the same size.

When the display screen size is changed according to the angle of view, for example, the SID when the angle of view is the smallest
17 may be set to the maximum screen size that can be displayed on the monitor 6, and the display screen size may be reduced as the angle of view is increased from this angle of view (however,
The observation image size should be substantially equal regardless of the display screen size).

According to this embodiment, when the insertion is set to the narrow-angle observation, the insertability is good, and when the extraction is set to the wide-angle observation, the back portion 34a of the pleat 34 can be displayed.
A lesion existing in the back portion 34a can also be found.

Since the lesion can be displayed in almost the same size both at the time of insertion and at the time of removal, the lesion that has been noticed at the time of insertion can be less likely to be overlooked at the time of removal. By changing the viewing angle, the size of the display screen changes, so that it is possible to see at a glance which viewing angle is currently being viewed, and eliminate erroneous operations.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show display examples according to the second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is applied to an endoscope for observing magnification. During normal observation, the screen is displayed in a normal size screen size 36d as shown in FIG. 5, and during enlarged observation, it is displayed in a screen size 36e as shown in FIG.
Display larger than d. Also in this case, for example, signal processing such as interpolation for enlarging the display screen according to the enlargement amount or enlargement ratio is performed.

According to this embodiment, during normal observation, the image is displayed on a screen of a normal size, and a normal routine inspection can be performed. At the time of magnification observation, in addition to the magnification by the objective lens of the endoscope, by enlarging the screen size, the magnification effect can be further increased and the observation function can be improved. In this embodiment, the image size on the display screen changes according to the enlargement ratio.

The supplementary explanation of the improvement of the observation function is as follows. In recent endoscopic procedures, it has become possible to diagnose a lesion at a site by analyzing the shape of a pit (called a pit) pattern of a mucous membrane from which a secretary substance comes out.

This pattern cannot be sufficiently diagnosed at a magnification enough to allow a routine inspection, and if an apparatus having a magnifying observation function as in this embodiment is used, the routine inspection and the magnification can be performed with one endoscope. Both observations can be made. Therefore, since both of the conventional examples are taken in and out, it takes a long time, and it is possible to reduce the pain of the patient and the heavy burden on the operator. In addition, just by looking at the screen size, it is possible to determine whether the observation is normal observation or enlarged observation.

FIG. 7 shows the distal end side of the insertion section 7 of the electronic endoscope 42 according to the third embodiment of the present invention. This electronic endoscope 4
Reference numeral 2 denotes the electronic endoscope 2 shown in FIG. Is connected to

Therefore, when the wire 22 is moved forward and backward and the movable lens 21 is moved forward and backward, the hood 43 can be moved forward and backward in conjunction with the movement. That is, as shown in FIG. 7A, when the wire 22 is moved so as to retreat the movable lens 21 and the wide observation is performed, the hood 43 is retracted backward to prevent the visual field from being blurred during the wide observation. I have.

At the time of tele observation, the hood 43 is made to protrude as shown in FIG. 7 (b) so that the protruding hood 43 prevents the object to be inspected 44 from being too close, and enables observation at an appropriate distance. I have to. In addition, an optical reflection surface 43a is formed on the inner surface of the hood 43 to reflect illumination light (not shown) and illuminate an observation site with the reflected light, thereby compensating for a shortage of light amount during tele-observation.

In FIG. 7, the light guide 13 and the like in FIG. 1 are omitted, but other configurations are the same as those in the first embodiment, and are denoted by the same reference numerals. The hood 43
May be a cylindrical shape having a wall on the entire circumference or a shape having a slit or the like and having a partially convex portion. Also,
In FIG. 7, the movable lens 21 and the hood 43 are moved by the wire 22, but another operation method may be used.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the moving lens 21 moves toward the SID 17 during wide observation, and moves away from the SID 17 during tele observation. However, the opposite may occur depending on the lens system. In that case, the movement of the movable lens 21 and the hood 43 is reversed, and when the movable lens 21 is moving to the SID 17 side, the hood 43 is protruded in the tele observation state,
When the movable lens 21 is apart from the SID 17, the hood 43 is retracted in the wide observation state.

According to the third embodiment, at the time of wide observation,
An appropriate distance can be maintained without being obstructed by the field of view and without being too close to the test portion during tele observation. Although the brightness is disadvantageous at the time of tele-observation, the inner surface of the hood 43 is an optically reflective surface, so that the brightness can be improved without wastefully illuminating the illumination light.

FIG. 8 shows the distal end side of the insertion section 7 of the electronic endoscope 52 according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. This electronic endoscope 5
In the electronic endoscope 2 shown in FIG. 1, a lens frame moving wire 53 is provided, and the distal end of the lens frame moving wire 53 is attached to a lens frame 55 to move the lens frame moving wire 53 forward and backward. Is performed, the lens frame 55 can be moved back and forth along the optical axis direction. This lens frame 55 includes the objective lens 16 and the SID 1
7 are attached.

As shown in FIG. 8A, at the time of wide observation, the lens frame 55 is pushed forward by the lens frame moving wire 53 so that the distal end surface 16a of the objective lens 16 is moved to the distal end surface 7 of the insertion section 7.
In the tele observation, the lens frame 55 is pulled by the lens frame moving wire 53 so that the distal end surface 16a of the objective lens 16 can be set rearward from the distal end surface 7a of the insertion section 7. .

The lens frame moving wire 53 is driven by an operating mechanism (not shown). According to this embodiment, the part to be inspected 44 is not blurred during wide observation, while
The distance to can easily be secured to an appropriate value suitable for observation.

FIG. 9 shows the distal end side of the insertion section 7 of the electronic endoscope 62 according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention. This electronic endoscope 6
Reference numeral 2 denotes the electronic endoscope 52 of FIG. 8 further provided with a field stop moving wire 63. This field stop moving wire 6
The distal end of 3 is connected to a field stop 64, and the field stop 64 can be moved forward and backward by operating the field stop moving wire 63 forward and backward.

In this embodiment, the movable lens 21 and the field stop 64 can be arbitrarily moved so that the position of the entrance pupil is shifted in the optical axis direction in accordance with zooming. At the time of wide observation, the entrance pupil is advanced in the optical axis direction. Since the observation area of the portion to be inspected is reduced, the magnification is improved. On the other hand, during tele observation, the entrance pupil is retracted in the optical axis direction. Since the observation distance and the observation depth at the time of the tele observation are increased, the overlap with the wide time is deepened.

FIG. 10A shows the distal end side of the insertion section 7 of the electronic endoscope 72 according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention. The electronic endoscope 72 is different from the electronic endoscope 2 shown in FIG.
It is driven by.

The rotation shaft of the motor 73 housed at the distal end of the insertion section 7 is connected to a male screw 74, which is screwed with a female screw member 75 connected to the moving lens 21. By supplying a driving current for rotating forward or backward to the motor 73 via the driving cable 76, the moving lens 21 can be moved forward and backward.

According to this embodiment, when the insertion section 7 is bent with the movable lens 21 stopped in the middle when driven by the wire 22 in the first embodiment, the movable lens 21
Can be prevented from moving. Further, when the wire 22 is used, the insertion portion 7 becomes hard and hardly bent, but this is not the case in this embodiment. Further, the operation for changing the angle of view can be performed by pressing a button or a switch, which makes the operation easier.

FIG. 10B shows the distal end side of the insertion portion 7 of the electronic endoscope 77 according to a modification of the sixth embodiment. The electronic endoscope 77 is configured to be driven by an actuator 78 instead of moving the moving lens 21 forward and backward by the wire 22 in the electronic endoscope 2 of FIG.

The actuator 78 housed at the distal end of the insertion portion 7 has a moving shaft 79 connected to the moving lens 21, and can move the moving shaft 79 of the actuator 78 forward and backward via a cable 80. The effect of this modification is the same as that of the sixth embodiment. The actuator is not limited to the electric type, and may be an actuator driven by a fluid such as a hydraulic pressure.

FIGS. 11A and 11B show an SID 17 that can be used in the present invention. Pads (not shown) formed along one side of the photoelectric conversion surface of the SID 17 are respectively TAB tape (TAB substrate) 8 by bumps 81.
The second base film 83 is connected to an inner lead 84 protruding from the front end. This inner lead 84
Are electrically connected to the pattern 85 on one surface of the base film 83.

After being connected to the inner leads 84 by the bumps 81, they are bent at the inner leads 84 and reinforced by the sealing resin 86 as shown in FIG. Before bending, as shown in FIG. 11A, the bump connection portion is not reinforced, and the bump connection portion is easily opened or the inner lead 84 is easily deformed.

In order to solve this problem, as shown in FIG.
Is made large, that is, A <B, so that an external force is hardly applied to the SID 17. With such a structure, it is possible to prevent contact opening and deformation of the inner lead 84.

Further, as shown in FIG. 12A, a cover glass 87 and a flare-preventing diaphragm 88 are superposed on the SID 17 and fixed to the SID holder 90 with an adhesive 89 as shown in FIG. FIG. 12 (b) is the same as FIG.
The front view of (a) is shown. The cover glass 87 is most generally rectangular, and the receiving portion of the SID holder 90 is generally rectangular accordingly.

Therefore, the outer shape of the flare preventing aperture 88 is also square, but the opening of the flare preventing aperture 88 is often round or octagonal. The flare preventing aperture 88 prevents flare and is adhered to the receiving portion of the SID holder # 90.

However, if the area of the bonding portion is small and the adhesive is applied to the entire circumference of the flare preventing aperture 88, the adhesive flows out and enters the field of view, which has the opposite effect. As described above, the application of the adhesive is pointed at the four corners 91. By doing so, the adhesive can be prevented from protruding, and the function of the flare preventing aperture can be sufficiently exhibited.

In the above embodiment, means for moving at least a part of the objective lens in the direction of the optical axis to change the observation range (imaging range) of the subject formed on the imaging surface of the SID is constituted. However, the objective lens is configured using, for example, a liquid crystal lens, and the refractive index of the liquid crystal lens is changed without moving in the optical axis direction, at least a part of the objective lens is changed, and the observation range of the subject is changed. You may do it.

In the present invention, S
It is not limited to the electronic endoscope in which the ID is arranged.
The present invention can also be applied to a TV camera mounted scope in which a TV camera with a built-in ID is mounted.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention, at least a part of the lens of the objective optical system is changed to change the observation range of the part to be imaged on the solid-state imaging device. An observation range changing unit, and the observation range changing unit.
The size of the display unit is changed according to the change of the observation range of the part to be inspected.
Change the size of the display section in the screen by changing the size
Display area size changing means to reduce the observation range when inserting into the large intestine, etc., to improve the insertability, and to increase the observation range when examining a lesion.
And the proportion of the display area of the subject on the monitor screen is large.
This makes it possible to prevent a lesion from being overlooked when the ratio of the display unit of the subject is not increased .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing an endoscope apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a signal processing unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an image displayed on a monitor when a narrow angle is set.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image displayed on a monitor at the time of setting a wide angle.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an image displayed on a monitor during normal observation according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an image displayed on a monitor during enlarged observation.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a distal end side of an insertion portion of an electronic endoscope according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration of a distal end side of an insertion portion of an electronic endoscope according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of a distal end side of an insertion portion of an electronic endoscope according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration of a distal end side of an insertion portion of an electronic endoscope according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a connection portion between a solid-state imaging device and a TAB tape.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an SID holder to which the solid-state imaging device shown in FIG. 11 is attached.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a flare preventing aperture that is adhered and fixed to the cover glass in FIG. 12;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Endoscope apparatus 2 ... Electronic endoscope 3 ... Light source part 4 ... Signal processing part 5 ... Video processor 6 ... Monitor 7 ... Insertion part 8 ... Operation part 12 ... Tip part 14 ... Lamp 16 ... Objective lens 17 ... SID DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 18 ... Signal line 21 ... Moving lens 22 ... Wire 23 ... Wire driving device 27 ... Pre-processing circuit 28 ... Interpolation circuit 29 ... Viewing angle information discrimination circuit 31 ... Memory 32 ... Post-processing circuit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An objective optical system disposed at a distal end portion of an elongated insertion portion, a solid-state imaging device that photoelectrically converts an optical image based on the objective optical system, and at least a part of a lens of the objective optical system. An observation range changing unit that changes a state to change an observation range of the target portion imaged on the solid-state imaging device; and a monitor having a screen including a display unit and a non-display unit that displays the target unit. A display unit size changing unit that changes the size of the display unit in accordance with a change in the observation range of the subject by the observation range changing unit, and changes a ratio of the display unit in the screen. The observation range has been widely changed by the observation range changing means.
In this case, increase the ratio of the display unit in the screen.
An endoscope apparatus characterized in that: