Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Corporation

Hideyuki Adachi

Hironobu Takizawa

Yasuhiro Ueda

Takeshi Yokoi

Hidetake Segawa

Hitoshi Mizuno

Masaaki Hayashi

Sakae Takehana

Yasuo Hirata

Hisao Yabe

Takeaki Nakamura

Hiroki Moriyama

Seiji Yamaguchi

Takashi Fukaya

Tatsuya Yamaguchi

Katsunori Sakiyama

Eiichi Fuse

Yoshihiro Kosaka

Akio Nakada

Masakazu Nakamura

Masakazu Gotanda

Shuichi Takayama

Kuniaki Kami

Toshimasa Kawai

Michio Sato

Hirofumi Miyanaga

Kiyotaka Matsuno

Yasundo Tanaka

Koji Fujio

Koichi Umeyama

Katsuya Suzuki

Yasukazu Tatsumi

Hiroki Hibino

Kenji Yoshino

Shinji Kaneko

Yoshinao Oaki

Mitsugu Nagayoshi

Kazuhiro Takahashi

Akihiro Horii

Tomohisa Sakurai

Hitoshi Karasawa

Tetsumaru Kubota

Tsutomu Yamamoto

Syuichi Takayama

Katsuichi Imaizumi

Atsushi Miyazaki

Mamoru Kaneko

Takefumi Uesugi

Koji Yasunaga

Isami Hirao

Yoshio Shishido

Akihiro Taguchi

Tatsuya Kubota

Takeshi Ozawa

Yoshisada Aoki

Hitoshi Ueno

Masahiro Ohno

Jun Hiroya

Eiji Yasuda

Tomoaki Sato

Hiroyuki Sangu

Masanori Kaneda

Masaya Yoshihara

Hidemichi Aoki

Kyo Imagawa

Nobuaki Uenishi

Yoshisade Aoki

A capsulated body having a facility, which acquires biomedical information through endoscopic examination or the like, incorporated therein is inserted into a duct within a living body. Whether the capsulated body has halted for a certain period of time is detected from the time-varying position of the capsulated body or a time-passing change in an image. If it is judged that the capsulated body has halted at a stenosed region or the like, the fact is notified so that the capsulated body can be collected immediately.

Capsulated medical equipment

A method of displaying an image in a subject is provided. The method including: capturing an image using a capsule type medical device introduced into the subject; generating a wireless signal of the image; receiving the wireless signal of the image at the outside of the subject with an external device; and displaying the image based on the received signal, on a first display portion contained in the same housing as the external device.

Method and portable device for displaying an image from a capsule type medical device

A method of transmitting images in a subject to an outside of the subject using a wireless signal is provided. The method including: (a) transmitting to the outside of the subject a first signal corresponding to a first image obtained using a first imaging device, by timing on a first illumination device for illuminating the subject to capture the first image of the subject; (b) transmitting to the outside of the subject a second signal corresponding to a second image obtained using a second imaging device, by turning on a second illumination device for illuminating the subject to capture the second image of the subject; and (c) repeating (a) and (b), where at least initiation of the transmitting the first signal and initiation of the transmitting the second signals is alternately performed and the first and second illumination devices are alternately turned on coincidentally with transmission periods of the first and second signals, respectively.

Capsule-type medical device and medical system

An encapsulated medical device is passed through the lumen of a body cavity in order to examine, cure, or treat an internal region of the body cavity under the control of the extracorporeal device. A capsule body has a linkage hole bored in the extended portion thereof so that when the capsule body comes into close contact with the internal surface of a body cavity to block the lumen thereof, the linkage hole will realize a fluid passage which allows a fluid such as a gas or humor to flow into the forward and backward parts of the lumen.

Encapsulated medical device and method of examining, curing, and treating internal region of body cavity using encapsulated medical device

A battery self-containing body, which self-contains a battery or a battery accommodating body, which accommodates a battery removably is attached to a capsule body including a drive circuit for driving an imaging device and an illuminating device. Thus, the power supply can be turned ON easily. In addition, the inside portion is sealed water-tightly. Thus, the battery self-containing body or a battery can be exchanged easily, which allows the easy reuse. The direction of the visual field of the imaging device is diagonal with respect to the axis of the capsule body. Furthermore, spiral-shape projections are provided on the peripheral surface of the cylinder form. Thus, the rotation allows the surface of canal cavity wall to be examined easily.

Capsule-type medical apparatus

In this invention, a drum around which an insertion portion is wound is integrally housed in a carrying case, and a cylinder for supplying a fluid to a hydropneumatic actuator and a solenoid valve unit for controlling the application of a hydropneumatic pressure are housed in the carrying case or drum. In addition, a joystick for operating the controlled variables of the solenoid valve unit can be housed in the carrying case.

Endoscope system

An encapsulated medical device includes a radio antenna through which the encapsulated medical device transmits or receives a radio wave to or from an extracorporeal device. The encapsulated medical device is passed through the lumen of a body cavity in order to examine, cure, or treat an internal region of the body cavity under the control of the extracorporeal device. A capsule body included in the encapsulated medical device has an extended portion formed at an upper end of one axis of a cross section of the capsule body cut at right angle to the longitudinal axis thereof. The capsule body has a linkage hole bored in the extended portion thereof to allow a fluid such as a gas or humor to flow into forward and backward parts of the lumen through the hole.

The capsule-type medical device in accordance with the present invention is advanced the inside of the somatic cavities and lumens of humans being or animals for conducting examination, therapy, or treatment. The capsule-type medical device comprises a plurality of hard units and a soft linking unit which links the plurality of hard units and has a diameter less than that of any of the hard units, wherein one of the plurality of hard units is different in size from other hard units.

A low coherence beam emitted by a low coherence light source is split into two portions. One portion is transmitted from the outward end of a first single mode fiber via a detachable connector to a beam scanning probe, and then to a biological tissue; and the other is transmitted from an optical coupler placed midway along the light path via a second single mode fiber to a light path modifier. The light path modifier includes a galvanometer mirror to modify the light path length in accordance with a scan range, and a uniaxial stage to adjust the light path length to absorb the variation in lengths of different beam scanning probes. The light path is adjusted by the uniaxial stage such that the beam interference is detected for the scan range, to ensure stable acquisition of tomographic images.

Optical imaging apparatus which radiates a low coherence light beam onto

An apparatus for holding a medical instrument, such as an endoscope, in place without exerting an undue force on an insertion hole in an abdominal cavity of a subject even when the arm of a scope-holding section is unlocked, includes a four-link parallelogram mechanism. The four-link parallelogram mechanism includes a support arm for supporting a treating tool, an arm section parallel to the support arm and upper and lower arm sections connected to the upper and lower end sides of the support arm and arm section in a parallel relation. A support mechanism supports the arm sections of the four-link parallelogram mechanism to allow the arm sections to be moved in left/right and up/down directions, while being rotated, so that a straight line connecting an intersecting point P of a center line of the treating instrument inserted into an insertion hole in an abdominal wall of a subject and the center of the insertion hole to spherical bearings of the arm is set parallel to the upper and lower arm sections.

Apparatus for holding a medical instrument in place

A guiding apparatus for guiding an insertable body within an inspected object is provided with an insertable body to be inserted into an inspected object, a guided part provided in at least a part of the insertable body and to be magnetically guided and a guiding device provided outside the inspected object and to magnetically guide the guided part. The guiding device includes a guiding part for guiding the guided part and a driving device for moving the guiding part at least two-dimensionally, the guided part and guiding part are to generate a magnetic force acting between them and the guiding part is to guide the guided part with the magnetic force.

Guiding apparatus for guiding an insertable body within an inspected

A multi-degree-of-freedom manipulator includes a flexible tube having a plurality of flex portions provided therealong, a plurality of actuators made of shape memory alloy and respectively provided near the flex portions to correspond to the flex portions, for flexing the flex portions, two common energy transmission paths, extending along the flexible tube, for transmitting an energy to the actuators, and selective energy supply members, provided between the common energy transmission paths and the actuators in series, for controlling the energy supplied from the common energy transmission path to the actuators, thereby respectively independently driving the actuators to bend the flexible tube. The manipulator is made by forming electronic circuits in a plurality of regions on a semiconductor substrate, forming wiring regions to connect the electronic circuits with flexible wiring portions, and removing a region of the semiconductor substrate other than a region thereof on which the electronic circuits are formed, thereby forming an actuator controlled chip array, used in the manipulator.

Method of manufacturing a multi-degree-of-freedom manipulator

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Sagamihara, Japan

Hideyuki Adachi