Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Yasufumi Shimoe

Takakazu Ishigami

Hiroyuki Fukuda

Kenji Murakami

Yoshihiro Hayashi

Nobuyuki Motoki

Hiroshi Hasegawa

Mitsunobu Ono

Masahiro Kumakura

Seiji Kimura

Nobuyuki Saruya

Shinji Fujikawa

According to the present invention, an endoscope system having an insertion member thereof wound about a drum comprises an electronic endoscope, a drum, an angling input unit, a motor-driven angling unit, a camera control unit, a motor-driven angling control circuit unit, and a stowage case. A bending section included in an insertion member of the electronic endoscope is motor-driven to bend, and a solid-state imaging device is incorporated at the tip of the insertion member. The insertion member is wound about the periphery of the drum. The angling input unit is separated from the electronic endoscope, and used to enter a direction of bending in which a user wants to bend the bending section. The motor-driven angling unit is incorporated in the drum, and includes a driving source for driving a driving mechanism that drives the bending section. The camera control unit controls the solid-state imaging device, and includes a signal processor for processing an electric signal sent from the solid-state imaging device to generate a video signal. The motor-driven angling control circuit unit controls the movement of the bending section. The drum is rotatably stowed in the stowage case freely.

Endoscope apparatus with drum part to wind insertion part therearound

According to the present invention, an endoscope system having an insertion member thereof wound about a drum comprises an electronic endoscope, a drum, an angling input unit, a motor-driven angling unit, a camera control unit, a motor-driven angling control circuit unit, and a stowage case. A bending section included in an insertion member of the electronic endoscope is motor-driven to bend, and a solid-state imaging device is incorporated at the tip of the insertion member. The insertion member is wound about the periphery of the drum. The angling input unit is separated from the electronic endoscope, and used to enter a direction of bending in which a user wants to bend the bending section. The motor-driven angling unit is incorporated in the drum, and includes a driving source for driving a driving mechanism that drives the bending section.

An operational remote controller integrates a joystick for bending a bending portion of an inserted portion in an endoscope. A bending lever stands on the joystick. For every automatically returning of the bending lever to a neutral position, a CPU of the operational remote controller detects the neutral position and sets an insensitive band within a predetermined range of the neutral position. Thus, the insensitive band can be set within a relatively narrow range irrespective of variation of neutral positions. The CPU supplies positional information of the bending lever to a control circuit for controlling a motor drive circuit. The control circuit controls a motor drive circuit based on the supplied positional information, and the motor drive circuit drives a motor to bend the bending portion of the inserted portion.

Endoscope apparatus

Controllable bending endoscope

Growing community of inventors

Fukuyama, Japan

Yasufumi Shimoe