Loading patent…
AssigneeAsahi Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHideo Sugimoto, Takayuki Enomoto
Estimating the term…
An electronic endoscope system that shares peripheral devices, such as a TV monitor, VCR etc., among a plurality of electronic endoscopes via an electronic endoscope selector. Each of the electronic endoscopes is connected to the electronic endoscope selector and the electronic endoscope selector selectively switches between video signals of the electronic endoscopes and feeds them to the TV monitor. Further the electronic endoscope selector comprises image memories and is able to store an image captured by the electronic endoscopes. A stored image may be comparatively displayed on the screen of the TV monitor with the live video being captured by the selected endoscope units. Further, the comparative display is controlled by control buttons on the electronic endoscope. The electronic endoscope selector also comprises a memory for storing image parameters for each electronic endoscope, and adjusts images on the screen by utilizing the parameter for each electronic endoscope.
An electronic endoscope system comprising:
An electronic endoscope selector comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Backward citations are indexed for grants only.
Instruments for performing medical examinations of the interior of cavities or tubes of the body by visual or photographical inspection, e.g.…:…
Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast: for receiving images from a plurality of remote…
Medical diagnosis and surgery
Pictorial communication
Term end not estimated
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic endoscope system which comprises a plurality of electronic endoscope units and peripheral devices, such as TV monitors, VCR's (video cassette recorder), and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
The objects and advantages of the present invention will be better understood from the following description, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic showing an electrical construction of an electronic endoscope system that includes an electronic endoscope selector of the present embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates a display arrangement on the screen of a TV monitor in the one-image indicating mode (first image-indicating mode) of the present embodiment;
The present invention is described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic showing an electrical construction of an electronic endoscope system of the present embodiment. As an example two different types of conventional electronic endoscopes are utilized in the system.
Image-signal processing units 40, 60, the TV monitor (image indicating device) 25 and VCR 26, which are shared by the above two processing units, are detachably connected to the electronic endoscope selector 10 via connectors (not shown). The image-signal processing unit 40 processes image signals for normal color images obtained by a RGB sequential method, utilizing a white light source. The image-signal processing units 60 processes image signals for monochrome fluorescent images obtained by a sequential method that uses shortwave radiation source for illumination. An endoscope 30 is connected to the image-signal processing unit 40 and an endoscope 50 is connected to the image-signal processing unit 60. Each endoscope 30 and 50 is detachably attached to the respective image-signal processing unit 40 and 60 by a scope connector (not shown). On the screen of the TV monitor 25, images captured by the endoscope 30 or 50 are alternatively displayed. The images displayed on the screen of the TV monitor 25 may be simultaneously recorded on a videocassette tape by the VCR 26.