Richard Wolf Gmbh

Roland Schafer

Felix Ams

Manfred Baier

An apparatus for automatically regulating a light source for providing light for illuminating an object viewed by means of an endoscope equipped with a video camera, there is provided a signal processing device having a circuit for defining the density value of the video signal of each line of the camera image, by means of which circuit, the video signal emitted is passed to a comparator which compares it with a brightness threshold voltage which can be preset. A control signal for regulating the light source is determined by counting the image lines having a brightness exceeding the threshold voltage and linking the resultant count to a mathematical function. The actual value obtained from the video signal is independent of the area of the bright parts of the image and is, therefore, independent of the diameter of the image circle of the endoscope.

Apparatus for automatically regulating the supply of light to an

A means for checking the iluminating means of an endoscope allows both the lamp of the endoscope and the light-guide cable to be checked for their operating conditions. For this purpose, the checking means has a beam splitter positioned in the beam path from the lamp which conveys part of the quantity of light emitted by the lamp to a detecting means. A detecting means provided with a device to receive the distal end of the light-guide cable picks up the quantity of light coming from the cable. From the signal derived therefrom and the signal generated by the detecting means, the transmission factor is found in a calculating circuit by quotient formation and is shown on a display. In this way it is possible to determine whether the transmission factor of the light-guide cable will allow the objects which are going to be viewed to be adequately illuminated or whether the cable needs to be replaced.

Means for checking endoscope equipment

Apparatus for adjusting the quantity of light emitted by a light source for illuminating an object under examination by means of an endoscope fitted with a video camera, comprises a signal processing circuit including a window generating device and a window superimposition device for visually displaying and optically defining a window and which generates a measuring window in the video picture displayed by a monitor connected to the video camera and superimposes the measuring window on the video picture in the form of a frame. A video signal for adjusting the quantity of light emitted by the light source is integrated only within the measuring window.

Automatic light adjustment means for an endoscope

An apparatus is disclosed for measuring the throughflow of a body liquid, in particular an apparatus for measuring the flow of urine in urological function diagnostics. The apparatus comprises a collecting funnel connected to a tube, which can be suspended in a WC bowl. In the tube are two axially spaced transducers one for continuously determining the electrical conductivity of fluid flowing through the tube from the funnel and the other for determining the specific electrical conductivity of the liquid. An electronic evaluation system determines the throughflow of the liquid upon the basis of the values determined by the transducers.

Apparatus for measuring the throughflow of a body liquid

The device comprises a rotationally driven surgical instrument incorporating a hand-held element having a mount rotatably installed therein for reception of interchangeable cutting and milling inserts, a driving motor for driving the mount receiving the tool inserts, a control unit for controlling the driving motor with means of setting the rotational speed and of preselecting the rotational speed range and direction of rotation as well as a digital indicator for displaying the rotational speed set up in each case. For the purpose of accessible storage of setting data, the control unit incorporates a non-volatile read-write memory for digital storage of rotational speeds, a code carrier as well as a coding/decoding arrangement.

Device with a rotationally-driven surgical instrument

In an apparatus for the insufflation of gas into a body cavity the dynamic pressure of the gas flow conducted to the body cavity and the static intra-abdominal pressure in the body cavity are detected with at least one measuring transducer. The electrical output signal of the measuring transducer detecting the pressure is converted by difference formation with a compensation signal, which substantially takes into account the resistance to flow of the instrument conducting the gas into the body cavity, into a difference signal corresponding to the static intra-abdominal pressure. With this signal a control circuit for the setting of the desired pressure value in the body cavity is controlled, in which respect the compensation signal in each case at the start of the insufflation is generated from the output signal of the relevant measuring transducer and is stored in a store and upon gas flow the stored compensation signal is fed to the one input and the output signal of the measuring transducer is fed to the other input of an operational amplifier for the formation of the difference signal, whilst the store at the input store is separated electrically from the measuring transducer by way of a switch.

Apparatus for the insufflation of gas into a body cavity

An endoscopic television system includes: a character generator which is controlled by a keyboard to store characters selected by actuation of the keyboard in a character store; an image control trigger by synchronization pulses derived from an endoscopic image video signal to read out the stored characters in the character store and to generate a character video signal; a mixer for mixing the endoscopic image video signal and the character video signal to generate a composite signal that is supplied to a television monitor. The characters are displayed on the television monitor in the portion of the screen not occupied by the endoscopic image.

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Bretten-Durrenbuchig, Germany

Roland Schafer