JPH0518085B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a light source device for an endoscope, and more particularly to a light source device that can selectively use two or more types of cameras.

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, in endoscope apparatuses, it has been widely used to take images using a steel film camera. Therefore, the structure and arrangement of the camera attachment structure (connector structure) to the operating section of the endoscope apparatus, the photometric signal cable inside the guide section, etc. have already been fixed. In recent years, solid-state imaging devices such as CCD and BBD have been put into practical use. It is known that manufacturing a camera using this type of element has various advantages in addition to being smaller and lighter. It has been desired to be able to use a solid-state image pickup device camera with such many features without any modification to conventional endoscope devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope device that can be used with a camera incorporating a solid-state image sensor and other types of cameras without any special modifications. An object of the present invention is to provide a light source device.

According to this invention, the photometric signal obtained from the output of the photometric means or the photometric signal obtained from the output of the photographing means
A signal input terminal into which a TV signal is input, and a signal input terminal connected to the signal input terminal and connected to the photometric signal or the
luminance signal generation means for outputting a luminance signal based on the TV signal; gate signal generation means for extracting a color signal component included in the TV signal from the input signal input from the signal input terminal and generating a gate signal; There is provided a light source device for an endoscope apparatus, comprising a gate means connected to a signal input terminal and outputting a TV signal based on the gate signal.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

First, FIG. 1 shows a portion of a conventional endoscope apparatus and a still camera.

A still camera 10 is detachably connected to an endoscope main body 14 via a connector 12.
In this main body 14, an optical path for collation light (not shown), an optical path for observation/imaging (not shown), and two cables 20 and 30 for power supply, etc., which will be described later, are buried. . The optical path for observation/imaging is connected from a connector 12 for a still camera, through a main body 14, an image guide section 16, and a distal end (not shown) to be inserted into a body cavity. Manufactured in Therefore, the camera side end of this optical path is optically positioned to the film 22 of the still camera 10, as will be described later. On the other hand, the optical path for the collation light is the light source device 40.
It receives the collimation light from the collimation lamp 42 and irradiates it into the body cavity from the distal end of the image guide section 16, which is also continuous with a bundle of glass fibers, for example. It is integrally molded into.

Next, a power cable 20 and a photometric cable 30 for the still camera 10 are buried from the connector 12 through the main body 14 and the light guide section 18 to the light source device 40. This power cable 20 is electrically connected to a power cable 21 inside the still camera 10 via a connector 12, and is thereby connected to an automatic film winding device 24 (hereinafter simply referred to as a "motor drive section"). It has the function of a drive power supply and a control signal line. On the other hand, the photometric cable 30 is also electrically connected to the photocell cable 31 inside the still camera 10 via the connector 12, thereby sending the photometric voltage from the photocell 26 to the light source device 40. Has a function. A prism 28, for example, which is provided in the optical path to the film 22 and irradiates a portion of the observation light, is oriented in the photocell 26.

With the above configuration, the luminance component of the observed optical image is provided onto the photocell 26 via the prism 28. Therefore, a voltage proportional to the amount of incident light is generated in this photocell and is sent to the light source device 40 via the photometric cables 31 and 30. Here, known photometric signal processing is performed and used as a reference value for obtaining appropriate exposure.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described in which a camera section incorporating a solid-state image sensor can be used without making any modification to the known endoscope apparatus as described above, especially to the related parts of the camera section. As shown in the figure.

As is clear from FIG. 2, the endoscope device main body 1
A camera 50 having a built-in solid-state image sensor, for example, a CCD 52, can be connected to the camera 4 without any modification.
The image signal from this CCD 52 is sent to the signal processing circuit 5.
4 and process it as a desired TV signal, and connect the photometric cables 31 and 30 in Fig. 1 to the TV.
It is used as a signal supply cable and is sent to an input terminal 62 in a light source device 60, which will be described later. On the other hand, a driving voltage or the like is applied to the CCD 52 via the power cables 20 and 21.

The TV signal supplied to this input terminal 62 is separated here into a color signal component and a video signal component. That is, the color signal components are separated by bandpass filter 64 and the video signal components are separated by lowpass filter 66. The color signal component separated by this bandpass filter 64 is supplied as a gate control signal to a gate circuit 68 to make the gate conductive. As a result, a color TV signal is outputted to one output terminal 70. Further, the video signal component separated by the low-pass filter 66 is integrated by the integrating circuit 72 and outputted to the other output terminal 74 as a luminance signal. This luminance signal is used as a photometric signal.

Furthermore, when the still camera 10 is connected to the endoscope main body 14 and operated using such a light source device 60, a photometric signal is supplied to the input terminal 62. Since no color signal component exists in this photometric signal, no gate control signal is generated from the bandpass filter 64. Therefore, the gate circuit 68 for passing the color TV signal remains non-conductive. On the other hand, an output signal is generated in the low-pass filter 66, which is integrated as described above and output to the output terminal 74.
as a luminance signal.

Also, instead of still camera 10, black and white camera
If a CCD camera (not shown) is connected, the operation will be similar to that described above, and since the monochrome image signal does not require integration processing, it can be taken out in parallel from the output terminal of the low-pass filter 66.

As described above, according to the present invention, completely different electrical characteristics can be achieved by simply adding a simple processing circuit to the light source device without making any mechanical modifications to the conventional endoscope device body. For example, a camera with a built-in solid-state image sensor can be used, and the economic benefits to the user are extremely large. This also has the effect of allowing the conventional photometric signal cable to be used as a TV signal cable.
Another advantage is that just by connecting different types of cameras, the type of signal can be automatically discriminated and the necessary processing circuits can be automatically operated accordingly.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above,
Various changes can be made.

For example, in the embodiment, each filter discriminates whether the incoming signal is a photometric signal or a color TV signal, but instead of using a bandpass filter, a color burst filter is used. A signal detection circuit can also be provided to control the gate circuit. It is also possible to detect a difference in the voltage supplied to the power cable and provide a changeover switch after the input terminal 62, so that the detection signal can be used to switch between the color TV signal processing system and the photometric signal processing system.

Further, those skilled in the art can easily think of various modifications, such as using a SAW (surface acoustic wave) filter instead of a bandpass filter or a low-pass filter, and these can be easily modified using the technology of the present invention. It falls within the scope of Also, CCD
It also applies to using elements such as BBD instead.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a case where a still camera is connected to a conventional endoscope device, and Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a circuit diagram of an embodiment of the light source device of the present invention used in a conventional endoscope device using a CCD camera. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the signal processing circuit of the embodiment shown in FIG. 10... Still camera, 12... Connector,
14... Endoscope device main body, 20, 21... Power cable, 30, 31... Photometry cable, 4
0,60...Light source device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A signal input terminal into which a photometric signal obtained from the output of the photometric means or a TV signal obtained from the output of the photographing means is input, and a signal input terminal connected to the signal input terminal and outputting a luminance signal based on the photometric signal or the TV signal. a luminance signal generating means for extracting a color signal component included in a TV signal from an input signal input from the signal input terminal and generating a gate signal; 1. A light source device for an endoscope apparatus, comprising: gate means for outputting a TV signal based on a gate signal.