JP5361296B2 - Endoscope device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, and more particularly to an endoscope apparatus in which a display section can be attached to and detached from a relay section and a main body section.

Endoscopic devices are widely used in the industrial and medical fields. The endoscope apparatus has an insertion portion, and the insertion portion can be inserted into the subject, and the inside of the subject can be observed by an imaging device provided at the distal end of the insertion portion.
In general, an endoscope apparatus includes an insertion unit, an operation unit, and a main body, and an endoscopic image is displayed on a monitor provided in the main body. The user performs an examination or the like inside the subject while viewing the endoscopic image displayed on the monitor. Therefore, the endoscope apparatus includes a scaling unit that performs a scaling process so as to correspond to the screen size or resolution of the monitor.

And the proposal of the endoscope apparatus with which a monitor is attached to an operation part (for example, refer patent document 1), and the proposal of the endoscope apparatus with which a monitor is attached to a main body part so that attachment or detachment is possible (for example, refer patent document 2). There is.
The endoscope apparatus according to any proposal has a scaling unit so as to correspond to the screen size of the monitor to be attached.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-292504 JP 05-297284 A

  However, since the endoscope apparatus is used for inspection in various environments, particularly in industrial use, not only when a monitor is attached to either the operation unit or the main body unit, but also each of the operation unit and the main body unit. A monitor may be attached to the monitor.

  Therefore, in the endoscope apparatus, assuming that two monitors are attached, it may be possible to incorporate two scaling units in advance so as to correspond to the screen size or resolution of each monitor. Providing two scaling units in advance is not preferable from the viewpoint of space. That is, it is not preferable to provide a scaling unit in the operation unit because the operation unit becomes large. Also, providing two scaling units is not preferable from the viewpoint of cost.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an endoscope apparatus that can cope with one scaling unit even when two display units are connected. .

An endoscope apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a first display unit that can display an endoscopic image obtained by an imaging device provided in an insertion unit, and can display the endoscopic image. An endoscope apparatus including a second display unit and a detachable main body unit, wherein the main body unit performs a scaling process on a digitally converted image signal from the imaging device; A clock generation unit that generates a driving clock signal for driving the scaling unit, a connection state detection unit that detects a connection state of the first display unit and the second display unit, and the connection state detection unit controls the scaling unit in accordance with the connection state, and have a control unit for controlling the clock generator to change the frequency of the drive clock signal according to the connection state, scale in the scaling unit Digital image signal which has been ring processing, is transmitted to the serial signal format first display unit side, then, is converted into a parallel signal format, the endoscope image is displayed on the first display unit It is characterized by that.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to realize an endoscope apparatus that can cope with one scaling unit even when two monitors are attached.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(Constitution)
FIG. 1 is an external view of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The endoscope apparatus 1 includes an insertion unit 11, an operation unit 12, a main body unit 13, and a cable 14 that connects the operation unit 12 and the main body unit 13.

  A bending portion is provided on the distal end side of the insertion portion 11, and the object to be observed is directed toward the desired direction of the CCD imaging direction provided on the distal end portion 11 a on the distal end side of the bending portion by the bending operation of the bending portion. Can be observed easily. An optical adapter 15 can be attached to the distal end portion 11a.

  An operation unit 12 serving as a relay unit with respect to the insertion unit 11 and the main body unit 13 is detachably provided with a display unit 12a capable of displaying an endoscopic image. The user holds the operation unit 12 and performs various operations. An endoscopic image can be seen at hand while operating the button. Furthermore, the display unit 13 a is also detachably provided on the main body 13, and the user can also view the endoscopic image on the main body 13.

  A connector 21 is provided on the proximal end side of the insertion portion 11. The operation unit 12 as a relay unit is provided with a connector 22 to which a connector 21 can be detachably connected. Therefore, the insertion unit 11 can be attached to and detached from the operation unit 12. Further, connectors 23 and 24 are provided at both ends of the cable 14. The connector 23 can be detachably connected to a connector 25 provided in the operation unit 12. The connector 24 can be detachably connected to a connector 26 provided on the main body 13. Therefore, the cable 14 that can be attached to and detached from the operation unit 12 can be attached to and detached from the main body unit 13.

  In the industrial field, the use environment of the endoscope apparatus 1 differs greatly because the subject has various sizes or the place where the subject is located is high. Therefore, the insertion portion 11 and the cable 14 are prepared in various lengths in advance so that the insertion portion 11 and the cable 14 having a length suitable for the usage environment can be used. Accordingly, the insertion section 11 and the cable 14 having an appropriate length are selected and attached to the operation section 12 and the main body section 13.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of the internal configuration of the endoscope apparatus 1. The same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.
As shown in FIG. 2, the distal end portion 11 a has a CCD 31 that is an image sensor.

  The operation unit 12 includes an EEPROM 32 that is a nonvolatile memory, an operation button unit 33 that includes various buttons for giving instructions such as freeze, a CPU 34 that serves as a control unit, and an LVDSIC unit that is a communication circuit for communication based on the LVDS standard. 35, a display unit control unit 36 for controlling the display unit 12a, and a memory 37. The EEPROM 32 stores data of a screen size selection table 51 described later. Therefore, the EEPROM 32 constitutes a screen size information storage unit that stores screen size information corresponding to the display unit identification information of the display unit 12a.

  The display unit 12a detachably attached to the operation unit 12 is provided with a display unit ID unit 39 that holds identification information for identifying the display unit 12a. The display unit ID is an ID corresponding to the screen size of the display unit 12a. The display unit ID unit 39 is a display unit ID storage unit that stores a display unit ID. The memory 37 includes a ROM and a RAM, and stores a processing program executed by the CPU 34.

  The main body unit 13 includes an A / D conversion unit 41 that is an A / D conversion circuit, an image processing unit 42, a clock generation unit 43, a voltage supply unit 44, a CPU 45 as a control unit, a scaling unit 46, and an LVDS. It includes an LVDSIC unit 47 that is a communication circuit for communication based on the standard, an EEPROM 48 that is a nonvolatile memory, a memory 49, and a display unit control unit 50. The main body unit 13 is also provided with an external recording unit 51 for recording a still image and an endoscope image of a moving image. The external recording unit 51 is a storage device such as a hard disk device or a memory card that can be attached to and detached from the main body unit 13.

  The display unit 13a detachably attached to the main body unit 13 is provided with a display unit ID unit 52 that holds identification information for identifying the display unit 13a. The display unit ID is an ID corresponding to the screen size of the display unit 13a. The display unit ID unit 52 is a display unit ID storage unit that stores the display unit ID of the display unit 13a.

  The user of the endoscope apparatus 1 inserts the insertion unit 11 into the subject while operating the operation button unit 33 of the operation unit 12. An operation signal of the operation button unit 33 is input to the CPU 34, and the CPU 34 performs control such as bending control according to the operation signal, and transmits a photographing instruction signal such as a freeze signal to the main body unit 13.

  A predetermined voltage is supplied from the voltage supply unit 44 to the CCD 31 as a power source. The voltage supply unit 44 includes a plurality of regulator circuits, and can output a voltage corresponding to the combined length of the insertion unit 11 and the cable 14 from a plurality of voltage levels.

The CCD 31 is also connected to the image processing unit 42 and is driven based on a drive signal from the image processing unit 42. An image signal obtained by the CCD 31 is supplied to the A / D unit 41 via the insertion unit 11, the operation unit 12, and the cable 14.
The A / D unit 41 is driven by the image processing unit 42, and the image signal converted into a digital signal by the A / D unit 41 is supplied to the image processing unit 42. The image processing unit 42 supplies a sampling pulse signal for sampling the image signal to the A / D unit 41. The image processing unit 42 includes a sampling pulse delay circuit, and can delay the sampling pulse signal by a predetermined time according to the combined length of the insertion unit 11 and the cable 14.
The image processing unit 42 outputs the image signal controlled and processed by the CPU 45 of the main body unit 13 to the display unit 13 a via the scaling unit 46 and the display unit control unit 50.

  Further, the EEPROM 48 stores data of a screen size selection table 51 to be described later, like the EEPROM 32. Therefore, the EEPROM 48 constitutes a screen size information storage unit that stores screen size information corresponding to the display unit identification information of the display unit 13a.

  The memory 49 is composed of a ROM and a RAM, and stores a program that is executed by the CPU 45 and performs processing to be described later.

  The image signal of the image processing unit 42 is supplied to the scaling unit 46. The CPU 45 controls the scaling unit 46 so as to perform scaling processing corresponding to each of the display units 12a and 13a on the respective image signals supplied to the display units 12a and 13a.

  Further, the driving clock signal DCLK for driving the scaling unit 46 is input from the clock generation unit 43 to the scaling unit 46.

  The clock generation unit 43 changes the frequency of the drive clock signal DCLK to be output based on the control signal from the CPU 45. The process of changing the frequency of the drive clock signal DCLK of the clock generator 43 by the CPU 45 will be described later.

The image signal scaled by the scaling unit 46 is supplied to the display unit 13a via the display unit control unit 50. As a result, an endoscopic image is displayed on the display unit 13 a of the main body unit 13.
Further, the image signal scaled by the scaling unit 46 is transmitted to the LVDSIC unit 35 of the operation unit 12 through the LVDSIC unit 47 in a serial signal format. The LVDSIC unit 35 converts the received image signal into a parallel signal format and supplies it to the display unit control unit 36. As a result, an endoscopic image is displayed on the display unit 12 a of the operation unit 12.
The display unit ID units 39 and 52 are nonvolatile memories.

FIG. 3 is a schematic circuit diagram illustrating an example of a circuit for detecting connection of each display unit.
The display unit 12a has a terminal p1 connected to the ground, and the display unit 13a has a terminal p2 connected to the ground. On the other hand, the main body 13 has two terminals p3 and p4 connected to the two input ports of the CPU 45, respectively. A pull-up resistor r is connected between the two terminals p3, p4 and the CPU 45.

  When the display unit 12a is attached to the operation unit 12, the terminals p1 and p3 are connected. When the display unit 13a is attached to the main body unit 13, the terminals p2 and p4 are connected.

  Therefore, the CPU 45 can detect that the corresponding display unit is connected when the voltage of each port becomes LOW.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen size selection table for causing the scaling unit 46 to perform appropriate scaling processing. The screen size selection table 51 is stored in the EEPROMs 32 and 48. The screen size selection tables 51 stored in the EPROMs 32 and 48 may be the same or different. For example, the CPU 34 refers to the screen size selection table 51 in the EEPROM 32 based on the display unit ID from the display unit ID unit 39, determines the screen size, and transmits the determined screen size information to the CPU 45. Similarly, the CPU 45 refers to the screen size selection table 51 of the EEPROM 48 based on the display unit ID from the display unit ID unit 52, determines the screen size, and obtains the determined screen size information.

  As described above, each of the table data in FIG. 4 is screen size information for the scaling unit 46 to perform appropriate scaling processing on the screen sizes of the display units 12a and 13a.

For example, in the case of the display unit H-1, the size of the image data output to the display unit is the standard size of QVGA. Similarly, when the display unit ID is H-3, it indicates that the size of the image data output to the display unit is an XGA standard size. The CPU 45 obtains the screen size information corresponding to the size of the image data, and sets the scaling parameter corresponding to the screen size information in the scaling unit 46, whereby the screens displayed on the display units 12a and 13a are displayed. The size will be appropriate. Therefore, the screen size information can also be referred to as screen resolution information.
The manner of using the table data will be described in the following description of the operation.

(Operation)
Next, the operation of the endoscope apparatus 1 will be described.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing flow for detecting connection of the display unit in the CPU 45.

First, when the power switch of the endoscope apparatus 1 is turned on, the CPU 45 executes the processing shown in FIG. 5 and 6 is stored in advance in the memory 49, and the CPU 45 reads and executes the processing program.
The CPU 45 executes the process of FIG. 5 for each port corresponding to the terminals p3 and p4. First, the CPU 45 determines whether or not the port voltage is LOW (step S1). If not LOW, NO is determined in step S1, and no processing is performed, that is, the display unit is not detected.

In the case of LOW, YES is obtained in step S1, and the connection of the display unit corresponding to the port is detected (step S2).
The CPU 45 can detect whether the display unit is connected to the main body unit 13 and the operation unit 12 by performing the processing of FIG. Therefore, steps S1 and S2 constitute a connection state detection unit that detects the connection state of the display units 12a and 13a.

After the process of FIG. 5 is executed, when a predetermined operation is performed and an instruction to display an endoscopic image is given, an endoscopic image display process including the process of FIG. 6 is executed.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of control processing of the frequency of the drive clock signal DCLK of the clock generation unit 43 by the CPU 45.
First, the CPU 45 determines whether or not the display unit 12a is connected to the operation unit 12 (step S11). Whether or not the display unit is connected can be determined from the result of the process of FIG.
Therefore, when the display unit 12a is connected to the operation unit 12, YES is determined in step S11, and then it is determined whether or not the display unit 13a is connected to the main body unit 13 (step S12).

  When the display unit 13a is connected to the main body unit 13, YES is determined in step S12, and the CPU 45 outputs a control signal to the clock generation unit 43 so as to double the frequency of the drive clock signal DCLK (step S12). S13).

  If NO in step S11, that is, if the display unit 12a is not connected to the operation unit 12, it is determined whether or not the display unit 13a is connected to the main body unit 13 (step S14).

  When the display unit 13a is connected to the main body unit 13, the determination is YES in step S14, and the CPU 45 outputs a control signal to the clock generation unit 43 so that the frequency of the drive clock signal DCLK is multiplied by 1 ( Step S15).

  If NO in step S14, that is, if the display unit 12a is not connected to the operation unit 12 and the display unit 13a is not connected to the main body unit 13, the CPU 45 A control signal is output so as not to generate the drive clock signal DCLK (step S16).

  As described above, the CPU 45 controls the clock generation unit 43 so as to change the frequency of the drive clock signal DCLK according to the connection state of the two display units 12a and 13a in steps S11 to S15.

  In step S13, when the clock frequency is doubled, the scaling unit 46 receives the double-frequency drive clock signal DCLK. Perform scaling processing. That is, the scaling processing of both the two display units 12a and 13a can be performed.

  In step S15, when the clock frequency is multiplied by 1, the drive clock signal DCLK having a frequency of 1 is input to the scaling unit 46. Therefore, the scaling unit 46 is, for example, one screen per 1/30 second. Perform scaling processing. That is, the scaling process of one display unit 12a or 13a can be performed.

  If no display unit is connected, the drive clock signal DCLK in the clock generation unit 43 is not generated in step S16. Therefore, the CPU 45 controls the scaling unit 46 so that the scaling process is performed according to the connection state of the two display units 12a and 13a.

  On the other hand, when the display unit 12a is connected, the CPU 34 reads the display unit ID from the display unit ID unit 39 by executing a predetermined processing program, and refers to the screen size selection table 51 of the EEPROM 32. The screen size information of the display unit 12a is transmitted to the CPU 45. Similarly, when the display unit 13a is connected, the CPU 45 reads the display unit ID from the display unit ID unit 52 and refers to the screen size selection table 51 of the EEPROM 48 to obtain the screen size information of the display unit 13a. .

  Then, the CPU 45 sets a scaling parameter in the scaling unit 46 according to the obtained screen size information of each display unit. Specifically, the CPU 45 acquires screen size information corresponding to each display unit ID, and executes a scaling parameter setting process of the scaling unit 46. The data of the screen size information is set in a predetermined register of the scaling unit 46.

  Therefore, in the case of step S13 in FIG. 6, the scaling unit 46 executes the scaling process for two screens in 1/30 second based on the scaling parameters corresponding to the two display units 12a and 13a. .

  Similarly, in the case of step S15 in FIG. 6, the scaling unit 46 performs the scaling process for one screen in 1/30 second based on the scaling parameter corresponding to the display unit 12a or 13a.

  In the above example, an EEPROM for storing the screen size selection table 51 is provided in each of the operation unit 12 and the main body unit 13. However, an EEPROM for storing the screen size selection table 51 is provided only in the main body unit 13. It may be. In that case, the CPU 34 transmits the display unit ID of the display portion 12a to the CPU 45, and the CPU 45 also determines the screen size of the display unit 12a by referring to the EEPROM 48 based on the display unit ID of the display unit 12a. .

As described above, according to the endoscope apparatus according to the above-described embodiment, even when two monitors are attached, it is possible to cope with one scaling unit.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

1 is an external view of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a typical block diagram which shows the example of the internal structure of the endoscope apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic circuit diagram which shows the example of the circuit for detecting the connection of each display part based on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen size selection table for making a scaling part perform an appropriate scaling process based on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the flow of the process for detecting the connection of the display part in CPU based on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the flow of the control processing of the frequency of the drive clock signal DCLK of the clock generation part by CPU based on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Endoscope apparatus, 11 Insertion part, 12 Operation part, 12a, 13a Display part, 13 Main-body part, 14 Cable, 15 Optical adapter, 21-26 connector, 51 Screen size selection table

Claims (3)

A first display unit capable of displaying an endoscopic image obtained by an imaging device provided in the insertion unit; a second display unit capable of displaying the endoscopic image; and a removable main body unit. An endoscopic device,
The main body includes a scaling unit that performs a scaling process on a digitally converted image signal from the imaging device, a clock generation unit that generates a drive clock signal that drives the scaling unit, and the first display unit And a connection state detection unit that detects a connection state of the second display unit, and controls the scaling unit according to the connection state detected by the connection state detection unit, and the drive according to the connection state have a control unit for controlling the clock generator to change the frequency of the clock signal,
The digital image signal scaled by the scaling unit is transmitted to the first display unit in a serial signal format, and then converted to a parallel signal format, so that the endoscopic image is converted to the first display unit. An endoscope apparatus characterized by being displayed on the screen . The first display unit and the second display unit further include identification information provided on each of the first display unit and the second display unit.
The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the main body further includes a nonvolatile memory that stores a screen size selection table corresponding to the identification information. A second display unit connected to the main body unit;
When the first display unit and the second display unit are connected, the control unit doubles the frequency of the drive clock signal, and the first display unit or the second display unit 3. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the clock generator is controlled so that the frequency of the drive clock signal is multiplied by 1 when connected.

Images