JPH08238216A - Endoscope apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an endoscope apparatus which achieves a common application of a body part and improved compatibility of an insertion part by supplying a data intrinsic to an endoscope completely. CONSTITUTION: This apparatus is provided with an inserting part 1 which is inserted into a body cavity to observe the inside of the body cavity, a body part 3 which has a system control section 13 to perform an image processing of an image data obtained from the inserting part 1, a memory element 21 which is provided in the insertion part 1 to store information pertaining to the inserting part 1 and communication elements 23 and 25 to supply information to the system control section 13 from the memory element 21 when the inserting part 1 is connected to the body part 3. The system control section 13 accomplishes an image processing of the image data based on information supplied from the communication elements 23 and 25.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope device, and more particularly to an endoscope device inserted in an affected area of a body cavity so that an insertion portion of the endoscope device can be appropriately connected to the body portion. The present invention relates to an endoscopic device having commonality and improved compatibility of an insertion portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An endoscope apparatus has an elongated body cavity inserting section for inserting into a body cavity of a patient and observing an affected area in the body cavity. This inserting section generally uses a connector as a main body. It is configured to be removable from the section. Further, the main body of the endoscope apparatus is configured so that many insertion parts can be attached and detached depending on the site (stomach, duodenum, large intestine, small intestine, trachea, etc.) into which the patient is inserted. This is useful because a relatively large main body part having a light source device and many other devices is commonly used for many insertion parts.
A problem in connecting various insertion parts to a common main body part is that each insertion part has different characteristics. Therefore, in using a certain insertion portion by connecting it to the main body portion, it is necessary to input the characteristics of the insertion portion, that is, various data unique to the insertion portion to the main body portion. And
In the main body, each part is adjusted so that an appropriate image can be obtained according to the input unique data.

There are various types of such unique data. For example, data relating to the structure of the tip of the insertion part for imaging the affected part in the body cavity, that is, a front imaging type structure for imaging the front straight from the insertion part tip, or left and right Data such as the side imaging type structure that images the side direction, the inverted image structure that is viewed inverted, or the normal image structure that is viewed without being inverted, or the manufacturing date of the insertion part, There is data such as manufacturing number and repair history.

Further, an electronic endoscope apparatus which has been recently developed as an endoscope apparatus uses a solid-state image pickup device using, for example, a CCD to pick up an image of a diseased part in a body cavity, and the solid-state image pickup device is inserted. Although it is arranged at the tip of the section, in the case of the electronic endoscope apparatus using the solid-state image pickup device as described above, there are variations in each pixel of the solid-state image pickup device, partial defects of pixels, and the like. Intrinsic data is also important. As data regarding such a solid-state image sensor, for example, screen coordinate position data of a partially defective pixel portion of the solid-state image sensor, or there is variation in each solid-state image sensor for each pixel, and an appropriate color display for this variation. Therefore, the white balance control amount data and the shading correction amount data for adjusting the RGB to obtain the white balance, and the assembling accuracy when the solid-state image sensor is incorporated or the positional deviation of the optical axis depending on the image incident position are caused. There are image center position coordinate data that clearly indicates the image center position, and screen mask coordinate data that clearly supports which part of the solid-state image sensor to display in relation to this.

In connecting the insertion portion to the main body portion for use, in order to identify the above-mentioned various data peculiar to the insertion portion to be used in the main body portion, conventionally, the insertion portion identification number for each insertion portion is used. Is provided and this identification number is formed by the connection contents of the pins of the connector provided in the insertion part, and when the insertion part is connected to the main body part through this connector, the main body part is the connection contents of the pins of this connector. From the insertion part identification number.

[0006]

Conventionally, the insertion portion identification number by the pin of the connector provided in the insertion portion has been used to identify various data unique to the insertion portion. Since not all of the various types of data were used but only some of them were used, it is possible to identify the required data by the method using the connector pins as described above. there were. However, in order to perform accurate processing, when all or many of the above-mentioned various data are required, or when other data is required and the unique data increases, the number is required in the conventional connector pin method. There is a problem that the number of data that can be identified by the connector pin is limited due to a structural problem and it is not possible to input sufficient data, in addition to increasing in proportion to the number of data to be acquired and structurally increasing. is there.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to completely supply necessary and sufficient data, that is, data specific to the insertion portion, to make the main body portion common and to be inserted. An object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope apparatus having improved compatibility of parts.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an endoscope which is inserted into a body cavity and observes the inside of the body cavity, and an image processing for image data obtained by the endoscope. A main body portion having an image processing portion to perform, a storage portion provided in the endoscope and storing information about the endoscope,
A supply unit that supplies the information from the storage unit to the image processing unit when the endoscope is connected to the main body unit, and the image processing unit supplies the information to the image processing unit. It is characterized in that the image data is subjected to image processing based on information. According to the present invention as described above, when the endoscope is connected to the main body, information relating to the endoscope is supplied from the storage unit provided in the endoscope to the image processing unit, and the image processing is performed. By performing image processing on the image data based on the supplied information, the unit can completely supply the data unique to the endoscope, and can improve the commonality of the main body unit and the compatibility of the insertion unit.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, particularly an electronic endoscope apparatus. This electronic endoscope apparatus is composed of an insertion section 1 to be inserted into an affected area in a body cavity of a patient, and a main body section 3 to which the insertion section 1 is connected.

The insertion portion 1 extends from the main body portion 3 and is formed in an elongated tube shape, and is detachably connected to the main body portion 3 by a connector 5. As a result, various insertion portions 1 can be connected to the main body portion 3 via the connector 5.

The insertion portion 1 has a solid-state image pickup device such as a CCD (not shown) at its free distal end 1a, and the solid-state image pickup device is adapted to pick up an image of an affected part in a body cavity. An output signal from this solid-state image pickup device is connected via a signal line 7 to a television camera controller 9 provided near the base of the insertion section 1, and from this television camera controller 9 via a signal line 11 and a connector 5. System control unit 1, image memory 15 and CRT in main unit 3
It is connected to the display device 17. Then, the image signal of the affected area imaged by the solid-state image sensor of the distal end portion 1a of the insertion portion 1 is image-processed by the control of the system control unit 13 in the main body unit 3 and stored in the image memory 15, and at the same time, the system control unit. The image is displayed on the CRT display device 17 under the control of 13.

An operation panel 19 is connected to the system control section 13. The operation panel 19 bends the distal end 1a of the insertion section 1 to direct a desired diseased part or illuminates the affected part. The light source (not shown) is turned on / off, the amount of light is adjusted, and other various operations are performed.

Further, a memory element 21 and a communication element 23 are provided at the base of the insertion section 1, and the communication element 23 is provided in the main body section 3 via the connector 5.
Connected with. The storage element 21 is, for example, a ROM or E
It is composed of a PROM or a battery back-up type RAM, etc., and stores various data unique to the insertion section 1 as described above. As the stored unique data, as described above, the front imaging type structure, the side imaging type structure, the inverted image type structure, the normal image type structure, the manufacturing date, the manufacturing number, the repair history, and the partial defect. There are screen coordinate position data of the pixel portion, white balance control amount data, shading correction amount data, image center position coordinate data, screen mask coordinate data, and the like. These various data are transmitted from the communication element 23 to the communication element 25 in the main body section 3 by the operation of the operation panel 19 and the control of the system control section 13, and are stored in the image memory 15 or a storage device (not shown) in the system control section 13. It is supposed to be remembered. Then, the system control unit 13 processes the image signal picked up by the solid-state image pickup device of the insertion unit 1 based on the data unique to the insertion unit 1, and is adapted to the insertion unit 1 connected to the main body unit 3. An accurate image is displayed on the CRT display device 17.

Since the storage element 21 for storing the unique data of the insertion portion 1 is provided for each insertion portion 1 in the base portion of the insertion portion 1, the insertion portion 1 connected to the main body portion 3 is replaced. However, the data unique to the insertion section 1 stored in the storage element 21 provided in the exchanged insertion section 1 is read out and stored in the main body section 3 side, whereby the insertion section 1
By processing the image signal picked up by the solid-state image pickup device on the basis of the stored unique data, an appropriate image is displayed. At the same time, the maintenance management of the insertion section 1 can be appropriately performed based on, for example, the manufacturing date, the manufacturing number, or the repair history in the stored unique data.

According to the embodiment described above, it is possible to dramatically improve the commonality of the main body and the compatibility of the insertion portion. Further, it is possible to reduce the number of connector pins and downsize them by not using the conventional connector pins for inputting data and adopting serial data transmission by the data supply control means. Furthermore, in the case of an electronic endoscope device that uses a solid-state image sensor, it is possible to properly use even a solid-state image sensor having a defect part or variation by accurately grasping unique data regarding the defect part or variation of the solid-state image sensor. Therefore, the yield of the solid-state image sensor can be improved. By storing the date of manufacture, the serial number, the repair history, and the like as data relating to the insertion section, maintenance management of the insertion section becomes clear and easy. Further, by storing the image center coordinates and the screen mask coordinates of the solid-state image sensor, it is possible to increase the tolerance of the error in assembling the solid-state image sensor and to increase the number of pixels effectively used by the solid-state image sensor.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The data unique to the endoscope can be completely supplied, and the main body can be shared and the compatibility of the insertion portion can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Insertion Section 3 Main Body Section 5 Connector 21 Storage Element 23, 25 Communication Element

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An endoscope which is inserted into a body cavity to observe the inside of the body cavity, a main body section having an image processing section for performing image processing on image data obtained by the endoscope, and the inside of the endoscope. A storage unit that is provided and stores information about the endoscope, and a supply unit that supplies the information from the storage unit to the image processing unit when the endoscope is connected to the main body unit. The endoscopic device, wherein the image processing unit performs image processing on the image data based on the information supplied from the supply unit.