US 2010/0168516 A1 · CAPSULE GUIDING SYSTEM AND CAPSULE GUIDING METHOD

Abstract

A capsule guiding system includes a capsule medical device having an imaging device that takes an in-vivo image of a subject and a magnet with a magnetization direction that is relatively fixed with respect to the imaging device; a magnetic guiding device that applies a magnetic field to the magnet in the subject and guides the capsule medical device; a display unit that displays the in-vivo image of the subject; and a control unit that causes the magnetic guiding device to apply a magnetic field in a reference direction to the magnet, initializes a rotation angle of an image taken by the imaging device when the magnetization direction of the magnet is oriented to the reference direction following the magnetic field in the reference direction, performs, referring to the image, rotation correction on subsequent in-vivo images, and causes the display unit to sequentially display the corrected in-vivo images.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A capsule guiding system comprising:

a capsule medical device including in a capsule casing an imaging device configured to take an in-vivo image of a subject and a magnet with a magnetization direction that is relatively fixed with respect to the imaging device;
a magnetic guiding device configured to apply a magnetic field to the magnet of the capsule medical device introduced into the subject and to guide the capsule medical device with the magnetic field;
a display unit configured to display the in-vivo image of the subject taken by the imaging device;
and
a control unit configured to cause the magnetic guiding device to apply a magnetic field in a reference direction to the magnet, configured to initialize a rotation angle of an image taken by the imaging device when the magnetization direction of the magnet is oriented to the reference direction following the magnetic field in the reference direction, configured to perform, referring to the image, rotation correction on subsequent in-vivo images, and configured to cause the display unit to sequentially display the in-vivo images on which the rotation correction is performed.

2 more elements

A capsule guiding method for magnetically guiding a capsule medical device that is introduced into a subject and sequentially takes in-vivo images chronologically, the capsule guiding method comprising:

acquiring information on magnetic guidance of the capsule medical device;
determining whether initialization of a rotation angle of an image taken by the capsule medical device is necessary based on the information on the magnetic guidance of the capsule medical device, which is acquired at the acquiring, and condition information previously set;
performing, when it is determined that the initialization of the rotation angle of the image is necessary at the determining, an initialization process on the rotation angle of the image;
performing rotation correction on subsequent images taken by the capsule medical device referring to the image whose rotation angle is initialized at the initialization process step;
and
displaying the subsequent images on which the rotation correction is performed at the rotation correction.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Capsule guiding system and capsule guiding method

Life of this patent

Capsule guiding system and capsule guiding method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13