Portable radiation image capturing apparatus and radiation image capturing system

A radiation image capturing system, comprising:

• a plurality of image capturing rooms;
• a radiation generation device which emits radiation and which is disposed in each of the image capturing rooms;
• a plurality of portable radiation image capturing apparatuses each comprising:
• a plurality of scanning lines and a plurality of signal lines which are disposed so as to intersect with each other;
• a plurality of image capturing elements which are two dimensionally arranged in regions defined by the plurality of scanning lines and the plurality of signal lines, respectively, and which generate electric charge according to an amount of radiation which is irradiated;
• an electric current detection unit which detects an electric current that flow in the apparatus due to a radiation irradiation;
• a reading circuit having a power supply mode in which electric charge generated and accumulated in each of the image capturing elements is read and converted into an electric signal and a waiting mode in which the electric charge is not read and power consumption is smaller comparing to the power supply mode;
• a battery which supplies power to each unit of the apparatus;
• a control unit which switches the reading circuit to the power supply mode from the waiting mode when the control unit detects that the radiation irradiation is started by detecting that a current amount of the electric current which is detected by the electric current detection unit increased when the reading circuit is in the waiting mode, and the control unit switches a power consumption mode of the apparatus between a first mode in which power is not supplied to the reading circuit, a second mode in which the reading circuit is made to be in the waiting mode and a third mode in which the reading circuit is switched to the power supply mode from the waiting mode;
• and a communication unit, wherein the plurality of the portable radiation image capturing apparatuses are disposed in each of the image capturing rooms;
• and
• a console which communicates with each of the portable radiation image capturing apparatuses, wherein
• the console comprises a selecting unit for selecting an image capturing room to be used for an image capturing among the image capturing rooms,
• the console switches a power consumption mode of all of the portable radiation image capturing apparatuses in the image capturing room which is selected by the selecting unit to the second mode according to a selecting of the image capturing room to be used for the image capturing by the selecting unit,
• when the control units of the portable radiation image capturing apparatuses which are switched to the second mode detect that the radiation irradiation is started, each of the control units switches the power consumption mode of the portable radiation image capturing apparatus to the third mode from the second mode, generates image data based on an electric charge read from the image capturing elements and transmits the generated image data to the console via the communication unit, and
• the console stores the image data which is received from the selected image capturing room by making the image data correspond with the image capturing room.