The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 28, 2003
Filed:
Jul. 25, 2000
Ryu Oshima, Hino, JP;
Olympus Optical, , JP;
Abstract
A nonvolatile, programmable memory is incorporated in an endoscope. Endoscope-related data closely relevant to the endoscope, such as, an endoscope model name and the number of power feeds are stored in the nonvolatile memory. The endoscope is connected to an external image processing apparatus, and endoscope-related data is read from the nonvolatile memory. Based on the read endoscope-related data, the use situation of the endoscope is grasped or the endoscope is managed. The number of power feeds is varied depending on the use situation of the endoscope, and written in the nonvolatile memory. Thus, the endoscope-related data is used to maintain the endoscope and reduce a load to be incurred by the external image processing apparatus that is a connected apparatus. Consequently, the endoscope can be managed and maintained easily using a small software system.