KR100896772B1 - Capsule endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

It relates to an endoscope of the capsule type of the present invention.

The present invention provides a housing that is an exterior member that seals an interior, illumination means installed in the housing to illuminate the subject, an imaging optical system that forms an optical image of the subject illuminated by the illumination means, and coupled to the housing. And a transparent cover through which light emitted from the illuminating means and light incident on the imaging optical system are transmitted, wherein the transparent cover is larger than an imaging angle of the imaging optical system and is irradiated with a maximum light of the illuminating means. It is formed within a range smaller than the angle, and includes a light collecting portion for condensing the light of the loss portion out of the imaging angle of the imaging optical system of the light emitted from the illumination means to be refracted within the range of the imaging angle.

Capsule endoscope, lighting means, light irradiation angle, imaging optical system, imaging angle, condenser

Description

Capsule Endoscope {CAPSULE ENDOSCOPE}

1 is an overall structural diagram of a conventional capsule endoscope.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a light irradiation range and an imaging angle of an imaging optical system of the lighting apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

Figure 3 is an overall structural diagram of a capsule endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a view for explaining the light irradiation range and the imaging angle of the imaging optical system of the lighting apparatus shown in FIG.

<Description of the code used in the main part of the drawing>

100: capsule endoscope 101: housing

102: lighting means 103: imaging optical system

107: protective cover 107a: light collecting part

It relates to an endoscope of the capsule type of the present invention.

Endoscopy is the most basic and essential test method to accurately determine the presence of diseases such as the esophagus, stomach, colon, small intestine, colon, rectum and anus, but by inserting an endoscope having a length of about 130 cm through the mouth or anus The internal observation method may cause pain in the subject depending on the body cavity structure of the subject, and cause objection and aversion to insert the endoscope through the oral cavity or anus, thereby allowing the subject to avoid the endoscope and according to the technical skill of the endoscope operator. There was a disadvantage that the degree of pain and the examination time were different.

In order to solve these problems, a conventional capsule endoscope including an imaging means, an illumination means, a communication means, a power source, and the like including an imaging optical system is proposed in a capsule-shaped housing. The capsule endoscope has a size of several tens of millimeters, and does not give a sense of rejection when the subject is drinking. Since the capsule endoscope moves in the body cavity of the subject, images of several frames per second are transmitted to the receiver in which the subject is carrying. It is recognized as a breakthrough technology to replace.

1 is an exemplary view of a conventional capsule endoscope, the capsule endoscope 10 is a housing 11 which is an outer member sealing the inside, and a light source 12a installed in the housing 11 to illuminate a subject. And a lighting means 12 including a light source controller 12b electrically driving the light source 12a, a plurality of lens groups 13a for forming an optical image of a subject illuminated by the lighting means 12, and Imaging means for receiving an optical image of an object to be imaged by the imaging optical system 13 and the imaging optical system 13 including the lens barrel 13b to be held, and performing a predetermined photoelectric conversion process or the like to generate an image signal. (14) and the electric circuit which receives the image signal output from this imaging means 14 and performs various signal processing (image signal processing or communication signal processing, etc.) and the whole internal electric circuit of the capsule endoscope 10 collectively. Circuit board mounted with control circuit to control 15, the power supply unit 16 for supplying power to each component in the capsule endoscope 10, the capsule endoscope 10 is installed in combination with the housing 11 in front of the capsule endoscope 10 It is composed of a transparent cover 17 made of a hard material such as resin so as to cover and protect the front part and to transmit the light emitted from the lighting means 12 or the light incident on the imaging optical system 13.

That is, in the conventional capsule endoscope, the light source 12a and the imaging optical system 13 of the luminaire 12 are provided at the same or similar height, and the light irradiation range of the light source 12a is the imaging of the imaging optical system 13. It is much wider than the angle, resulting in a loss of light as shown in FIG.

Such a loss part causes an overlap of images by scattering of light, and increases the capacity of the power supply unit 16 due to unnecessary light emission, thereby increasing the size of the endoscope, and the subject feels a burden when taking it.

In addition, the housing 11 and the transparent cover 17 are coupled to seal the capsule endoscope 10, and a protrusion or a sharp portion exists at the coupling portion of the housing 11 and the transparent cover 17 in the manufacturing process. In this case, a phenomenon occurs that damages the fragile body cavity by the protrusion or the sharp part.

The present invention provides a capsule endoscope capable of concentrating light emitted from a light source within an imaging angle range of an imaging optical system.

The present invention provides a capsule endoscope having a more gentle structure in which the housing and the transparent cover are combined.

The present invention provides a housing that is an exterior member that seals an interior, illumination means installed in the housing to illuminate the subject, an imaging optical system that forms an optical image of the subject illuminated by the illumination means, and coupled to the housing. And a transparent cover through which light emitted from the illuminating means and light incident on the imaging optical system are transmitted, wherein the transparent cover is larger than an imaging angle of the imaging optical system and is irradiated with a maximum light of the illuminating means. It is formed within a range smaller than the angle, and includes a light collecting portion for condensing the light of the loss portion out of the imaging angle of the imaging optical system of the light emitted from the illumination means to be refracted within the range of the imaging angle.

The light collecting portion is smaller than that of the rest of the transparent cover.

The diameter of the transparent cover including the light collecting part is formed at least equal to or larger than the diameter of the housing.

The remaining portion of the transparent cover except for the light collecting part has a constant inner surface curvature radius and an outer surface curvature radius, or a thickness between the inner surface and the outer surface is thickest in the central axis of the imaging angle, and the outer edge of the imaging angle. It can also be configured to thin as thinner.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiment (s) of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, in adding reference numerals to the elements of each drawing, it should be noted that the same elements are denoted by the same reference numerals as much as possible even if they are displayed on different drawings. In addition, in the following description there are shown a number of specific details, such as components of the specific circuit, which are provided only to help a more general understanding of the present invention that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. It is self-evident to those of ordinary knowledge in Esau. In describing the present invention, when it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

3 is an overall structural diagram of a capsule endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is a view for explaining the light irradiation range and the imaging angle of the imaging optical system of the illumination device shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 3, the capsule endoscope 100 electrically drives a housing 101 which is an exterior member sealing the inside, a light source 102a and a light source 102a installed in the housing 101 to illuminate a subject. The illumination means 102 comprised by the light source control part 102b, the some lens group 103a which forms the optical image of the subject illuminated by the illumination means 102, and the lens barrel 103b which hold | maintains it, etc. An imaging means 104 configured to receive an optical image of an object to be imaged by the imaging optical system 103 and to perform a predetermined photoelectric conversion process or the like to generate an image signal, and the imaging means ( An electric circuit that receives the image signal output from the 104 and performs various signal processing (image signal processing or communication signal processing, etc.) and a circuit in which the control circuit for collectively controlling the entire internal electric circuit of the capsule endoscope 100 is mounted. Substrate 105 and capsule endoscope 100 The power supply unit 106 for supplying power to each component in the interior, and the housing 101 is installed in front of the capsule endoscope 100, and covers the front portion of the capsule endoscope 100 to protect and at the same time It is composed of a transparent cover 107 made of a hard material such as resin so that light emitted from the 102 or light incident on the imaging optical system 103 can be transmitted.

On the other hand, the light condensing part 107a which has a curvature different from the internal curvature or the external curvature of the transparent cover 107 is processed in the predetermined part of the transparent cover 107. As shown in FIG. 4, the condenser 107a is formed on the transparent cover 107 within a range larger than the imaging angle of the imaging optical system 103 and smaller than the maximum light irradiation angle of the luminaire 102, and the present invention. In the light emitted from the luminaire 102, it is designed to have a predetermined curvature and shape for refracting and condensing the light irradiated at an angle outside the imaging angle of the imaging optical system 103 within the imaging angle of the imaging optical system 103. desirable. Preferably, the light collecting part 107a has the shape of a convex lens to collect light.
Here, the material of the light collecting part 107a is a plastic injection molding having a refractive index between 1.5 and 1.55, and the additional curvature of the light collecting part 107a is limited to less than 1/2 of the main curvature.
That is, the basic law of refraction occurs according to Snell's law as shown in Equation 1, and the emission angle of light passing through the external dome can be obtained using Equation 1.
n * sin (incidence angle) = n * sin (incidence angle)
In general, when the outer curvature of the dome is r = 5.8 and the inner curvature is r = 5.1, when the incident light moves from the air inside the dome to the inner surface of the dome according to Snell's law, As a result of substitution, 1 * sin (39.39) = 1.5146 * sin (emergence angle 1), an exit angle of 1 = 24.77 is obtained, and when the light moves from the dome to the outer surface of the dome, it is substituted into Equation 1, 1.5146 From * sin (21.62) = 1 * sin * (emission angle 2), we can obtain an emission angle of 2 = 33.92.
Even when the external curvature is added under the condition that the inner surface is the same, the exit angle 1 is the same, and the exit angle when the incident light passes the external additional curvature is 1.5146 * sin (39.86) = 1 * sin ), You can get an exit angle of 2 = 76.1. That is, a formula is established that the emission angle can be increased by adding an external curvature to a specific portion and increasing the incident angle suitable for the external curvature.

That is, the capsule endoscope 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention operates each component in the circuit board 105 by the power supplied from the power supply unit 106, and thus the light emitted from the lighting unit 102. The transparent cover 107 penetrates and is irradiated to the subject.

As the light irradiated onto the subject is reflected and passes through the transparent cover 107 to reach the lens group 103a in the optical imaging system 103, an image is formed in the imaging optical system 103, and the formed image is captured by the imaging means 104. Is converted into electrical image data. Electrically converted image data is transmitted to a portable receiver carried by the user through a communication module (not shown) in the circuit board 105, thereby the image of the subject photographed by the capsule endoscope 100 Is stored in the receiver.

At this time, if the subject to be photographed is a wall (long-term wall), the object of the subject may be sufficiently illuminated by the light irradiated from the lighting unit 102, but the subject of the subject is a passage (long-term passage). The light irradiated from the luminaire 102 does not sufficiently light the object to be photographed.

At this time, the light collecting part 107a collects the light corresponding to the loss portion (see FIG. 2) among the light irradiated from the illuminating means 102 and refracts the light within the imaging angle range of the imaging optical system 103, thereby insufficient. The amount of light can be replenished.

In addition, the light collecting part 107a has a curved shape and is connected to the housing 100 with a gentle inclination angle, so that the subject does not feel a burden when taking the capsule endoscope 100.

In addition, as the size and position of the light collecting part 107a are adjusted, a transparent cover 107 having a larger size may be applied without changing the size of the housing 100. In this case, in the capsule endoscope in which the transparent cover 107 serves as a lens, an enlarged image of the subject may be acquired.

As described above, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiment (s) have been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiment (s), but should be defined by the claims below and equivalents thereof.

The present invention collects the light corresponding to the loss portion of the light irradiated from the luminaire, and comprises a light converging portion that refracts and irradiates within the imaging angle range of the imaging optical system, thereby compensating for the insufficient amount of light to obtain a more precise subject image. Can be.

According to the present invention, the light collecting part has a curved shape, and the connection part with the housing is composed of a gentle inclination angle, so that the subject does not feel a burden when taking the capsule endoscope.

According to the present invention, since the transparent cover of a larger size can be combined without changing the size of the housing according to the position and size of the light collecting portion, it is possible to obtain an enlarged object image.

Claims (5)

A housing which is an exterior member for sealing the interior, illuminating means provided in the housing to illuminate the subject, an imaging optical system for forming an optical image of the subject illuminated by the illuminating means, coupled to the housing and being illuminated In a capsule endoscope comprising a transparent cover through which the light emitted from the means and the light incident on the imaging optical system is transmitted: The transparent cover, It is formed within a range larger than the imaging angle of the imaging optical system and smaller than the maximum light irradiation angle of the illumination means, and condenses the light of the lost portion outside the imaging angle of the imaging optical system of the light emitted from the illumination means to Capsule endoscope including a light collecting portion for refraction within the range to irradiate. The method of claim 1, The condenser is, A capsule endoscope smaller than that of the rest of the transparent cover. The method of claim 1, The diameter of the transparent cover including the light collecting portion, Capsule endoscope formed at least equal to or larger than the diameter of the housing. The method of claim 3, wherein The remaining portion of the transparent cover except for the light collecting portion, Capsule type endoscope with constant inner and outer radius of curvature. The method of claim 3, wherein The remaining portion of the transparent cover except for the light collecting portion, The thickness between the inner surface and the outer surface is thickest in the central axis of the imaging angle, Capsule type endoscope thinner to the outside of the imaging angle.

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