Surgery – Endoscope – With control or monitoring of endoscope functions
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-23
2001-11-27
Mulcahy, John (Department: 3739)
Surgery
Endoscope
With control or monitoring of endoscope functions
C600S168000, C348S065000, C348S072000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06322497
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic endoscope for displaying a body-cavity image on a TV monitor, the endoscope having a video-scope having an image sensor and a video-processor. In particular, this invention relates to an adjustment of display-positions of character information including a patient's name, displayed on the monitor with the body-cavity image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electronic endoscope, a video-scope includes an optical light guide extended therethrough, which is formed as a bundle of optical fibers. A video-processor includes a light source, such as a halogen lamp. When the video-scope is connected to the video-processor, a proximal end of the optical light guide is optically connected to the light source. Thus, an object to be photographed is illuminated by light radiating from a distal end of the optical light guide, and then an object image is formed on a CCD (Charge-Coupled-Device) provided at the distal end of the video-scope, which is an image sensor. The object image, formed on the CCD, is converted into analog image-pixel signals by photoelectric conversion. The analog image-pixel signals are fed to the video-processor and are suitably processed, so that video signals are generated. The video signals are then output to a TV monitor. Thus, a body-cavity image (for example, an image of a stomach) is displayed on the monitor.
Further, a CRT controller for generating character signals is incorporated in the video-processor. Thus, character information, such as a patient's name and a doctor's name, and a pointer for pointing to a specific portion of the cavity can be also displayed on the monitor with the body-cavity image.
As is well known, the CCD in the video-scope has a smaller size than that of a CCD used in a normal camera. Namely, a number of image pixels, included in one frame, obtained from the video-scope CCD, is less than a number of image pixels, included in one frame, obtained from the normal camera CCD. Therefore, the object image, formed on the CCD in the video-scope, is only displayed on a partial area of the screen of the monitor. Accordingly, in a conventional electronic endoscope, a size of the image-area, within which the object image is displayed, is selectively and optionally changeable when a detailed examination of the diseased portion in the organ is needed. Thus, the object image, displayed on the screen, is enlarged to a predetermined size. Also, a large-sized image-area can be returned to the original-sized image-area.
In accordance with the size-change of the image-area, the character information is also shifted. Namely, a display-position of each item of the character information is changed such that the character information does not overlap the image-area on the screen. A display-position of the pointer is changed only when the pointer is displayed beyond the image-area by the size-change of the image-area.
A control process for changing the displayed-positions of the character information and the pointer is performed under a program in the video-processor. In a source code of the program, which is made by using a programming language, such as the “C” programming language, a description for computing the display-positions corresponding to each item of the character information and the original-sized/the large-sized image-area is needed.
However, the size of the image-area, within which the object image is displayed on the screen, differs from one video-scope to another because of differing characteristics of the CCDs in the video-scopes. Further, a hospital name, a patient's registration number and a patient's sex, and etc., should be also displayed on the screen with the patient's name and age. Therefore, the description for determining the display-positions in the source code increases as the kinds of video-scopes and the amount of character information increases. As a consequence, the structure of the source code becomes complicated, and processing for displaying of the character information cannot be rapidly performed.
Then, as inspection of the source code is difficult, reliability of operation of the electronic endoscope as a whole decreases. Further, the capacity of a memory, in which the program is stored, cannot be reduced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic endoscope that can execute a processing for displaying the character information and the pointer in accordance with a size-change of the image-area by a simple program.
An electronic endoscope of the present invention has a video-scope having an image sensor, a video-processor, to which a proximal end of the video-scope and a monitor are respectively connected, a character and mark generation controller, and an image-area changer.
In the video-scope, an object image is formed on the image sensor provided at a distal end of the video-scope, and then image-pixel signals corresponding to the object image are generated. In the video-processor, image-pixel signals are processed and video signals are generated to display the object image on the monitor. The character and mark generation controller generates character signals and indicator-mark signals, and then feeds the character signals and the indicator-mark signals to the monitor at a timing, such that character information and an indicator-mark are respectively displayed at a position on a screen of the monitor with said object image. The image-area changer changes a size of an image-area of the object image displayed on the screen of the monitor to another size, thus the object image is selectively displayed within one of plural image-areas on the screen in accordance with a size-change of the image-area.
Further, the character and mark generation controller includes a display-position adjuster. The display-position adjuster determines display-positions of the character information and the indicator-mark on the basis of a reference table, in which correspondence between each of the image-areas and each of the display-positions of the character information and the indicator-mark is indicated. Thus, the character information and the indicator-mark are respectively displayed at the determined display-positions in accordance with the size-change of the image-area.
As the display-positions of the character information and the indicator-mark are determined on the basis of the reference table, the structure of the program is simple. Therefore, the reliability of the operation of the electronic endoscope improves, and further, the program can be stored in a reduced-capacity memory.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4841363 (1989-06-01), Arms et al.
patent: 5305098 (1994-04-01), Matsunaka et al.
patent: 5412478 (1995-05-01), Ishihara et al.
patent: 5871439 (1999-02-01), Takahashi et al.
Asahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Mulcahy John
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