JP2002290783A - Electronic endoscope device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily determine whether an image displayed on a monitor and a current input function of operation members are in a endoscope observation or in a recorded image reproduction. SOLUTION: In the electronic endoscope device wherein various functions are operated by operation means such as key board, freeze switch or the like, an image currently captured is displayed on the observation monitor 28, and an image recorded in a digital image file device 29 or the like is reproduced on the monitor 30, messages indicating that the image is currently reproduced and the input function of the operation means is switched to the reproduction mode are displayed on the center of the observation monitor 28 in a reproduction mode. Incidentally, when switching the screens in one monitor, it is displayed at the four corners of the screen. Thus, it is easily determined whether the image displayed on the monitor and the current input function of the operation members are in either mode.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic endoscope apparatus, and more particularly to an electronic endoscope which displays an image of an object to be observed picked up by an electronic scope on a monitor and records the image on a recording device to reproduce and display the image on the monitor. The present invention relates to control of operation and display of a mirror device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electronic endoscope apparatus, an object to be observed is illuminated by a light from a distal end portion of the device.
The image is displayed on a monitor by being picked up by an image sensor such as. In addition, the above CC
The still image or moving image captured by D is recorded on a recording device such as a digital image file device or a VTR as necessary, and the recorded image is configured to be reproduced and displayed on a monitor later.

[0003] For example, when two monitors for endoscope observation and two monitors for image reproduction are provided separately, the current object to be observed being picked up by the electronic scope is displayed on the observation monitor.
The playback image of the recording device is displayed on the playback monitor. In addition, switching between endoscopic observation and image reproduction is performed on a single monitor.

[0004]

However, in the conventional electronic endoscope apparatus, since the reproduced image by the recording device is also displayed on the monitor, the image displayed on the monitor is the current observation (captured) image. There is a problem that it is confusing whether there is an image or a reproduced image.

[0005] Further, in order to operate various functions during such endoscope observation (hereinafter referred to as an observation mode) and recorded image reproduction (hereinafter referred to as a reproduction mode) with a common operation member, operation keys and the like are provided. It has been proposed to switch the role of the switch in each mode. For example, the up and down arrow keys serve as zoom keys in the observation mode, but serve as up and down keys for the cursor in the reproduction mode, and the freeze switch provided on the electronic scope does not operate in the reproduction mode.

However, since it is confusing whether the current operation is the observation mode or the reproduction mode, there is a possibility that an erroneous operation is performed on these keys or switches. In other words, when displaying the image in the observation mode and the image in the reproduction mode on the respective dedicated monitors, the user operates the keys valid in the observation mode while watching the observation monitor in the reproduction mode, or switches between the images in both modes. In this case, a key operation for the observation mode is performed even when the recorded image is being reproduced even when the image is displayed on one monitor.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to determine whether an image displayed on a monitor and a current key function of an operation member are in an observation mode or a reproduction mode of a recorded image. It is an object of the present invention to provide a user-friendly electronic endoscope device which makes it easy to determine the endoscope.

[0008]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signal processing circuit for forming an image signal based on an output signal of an image sensor for imaging an object to be observed. An external recording device that records an image signal formed by the processing circuit, and an image that is currently captured based on an output signal from the signal processing circuit is displayed, and a recorded image recorded in the external recording device is reproduced and displayed. An electronic endoscope device having a monitor to perform, and an operation means for inputting various functions, an observation mode control for endoscopic image observation based on the operation of the operation means, and an operation of the external recording device. A control circuit for controlling a reproduction mode for image reproduction, and based on the control of the control circuit, indicates that the input function of the operation means is switched to the reproduction mode during the image reproduction operation The characterized in that a display processing circuit for displaying on the monitor message.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the monitor for endoscopic observation and the monitor for image reproduction are separately provided as the monitor,
Displaying a message indicating that the input function of the operation means has been switched to a playback mode and a message indicating that a recorded image is being played on the endoscope observation monitor during the image playback operation. I do. According to a third aspect of the present invention, when one monitor for switching between endoscopic observation and image reproduction is provided as the monitor, the input function of the operation means is displayed on the reproduction screen during the image reproduction operation. A message indicating that the mode is switched to the reproduction mode is displayed.

According to the above arrangement, for example, when the PAUSE key of the operation means such as a keyboard is pressed, the mode is switched from the observation mode to the reproduction mode, and the recorded image of the external recording device can be reproduced based on the operation of the keyboard. . During the playback, a message indicating that the input function of the operation member is switched to the playback mode is displayed on the monitor. That is, when the reproduction monitor is provided separately, a message is displayed, for example, at the center of the screen of the observation monitor, and when switching and using one monitor, the message is displayed around the reproduction screen. .

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an electronic endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment. As shown in FIG.
An electronic scope (electronic endoscope) 10 is provided with a light guide 13 from a light source device 12 to a distal end portion. A CCD 14 serving as an image pickup device is provided at this tip.
A CCD drive circuit 15 is connected to D14, and an image signal is read from the CCD 14 by a drive signal of the CCD drive circuit 15. Further, a freeze switch or the like for recording a still image is provided as an operation member.

On the other hand, the processor device 18 has the CC
A / D converter 19 for inputting the output signal of D14, amplification,
A digital signal processor (DSP) 20 for performing various digital processes such as white balance and gamma correction, a mixing circuit 21, and a D / A converter 22 are arranged. A microcomputer 24 for controlling the controls in the endoscope observation (observation mode) and recorded image reproduction (reproduction mode) and executing display control of a message; a character generator 25 for generating imaging conditions, patient data, messages, etc. A keyboard 26 is provided as an operation member.

The processor 18 further includes an observation monitor 28 for inputting an image signal under observation currently output from the D / A converter 22, and a D / A converter 22.
A digital image file 29 is connected as a recording device for inputting the image signal for recording output from the computer, and a reproduction monitor 30 is connected to the digital image file 29. In addition, other than the digital image file 29, other devices such as a VTR can be used as the recording device.

The microcomputer 24 switches between the observation mode and the reproduction mode using the PAUSE key of the keyboard 26, and executes the functions shown in the following table assigned in each of these modes.

[0015]

[Table 1]

In this reproduction mode, the input of the freeze switch (recording trigger) is not accepted. Further, the microcomputer 24 and the character generator 25 perform a process of displaying the message shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 2, "DF (data filing) playing
mode, Press PAUSE key to EX
A message such as "IT (can be returned by operating the PAUSE key during the data filing operation)" is generated by the character generator 25 and displayed in the center of the screen of the monitor 28. The above message is generated by operating the PAUSE key. The expression that it is possible to return to the observation mode indicates that the current input function is the reproduction mode.

In this electronic endoscope apparatus, the signal output from the CCD 14 in FIG. 1 is supplied to the DSP 20 via the A / D converter 19,
Here, various processes for image formation are performed. The output of the DSP 20 is supplied to a mixing circuit 21, a D / A converter 22
Is supplied to the monitor for observation 28 through which the image of the object to be observed is displayed. Accordingly, diagnosis, treatment, and the like are performed while viewing the image on the monitor 28.

In this example, the image displayed on the monitor 28 can be recorded in a digital image file. When the freeze switch of the electronic scope 10 is operated, the still image formed by the DSP 20 is converted into a digital image. Output to file 29 and recorded. The image recorded in the digital image file 29 can be reproduced by the PAUSE key on the keyboard 26.

FIG. 3 shows the operation of the microcomputer 24 in the observation mode. In step 101, it is determined whether or not the PAUSE key has been operated. Control is executed. In the case of "NO", the observation mode is continued, and the above-described recording operation and the like are also performed.

FIG. 4 shows the operation of the microcomputer 24 in the reproduction mode. In this reproduction mode, a message is displayed in step 201. That is, FIG.
As shown in “DF playing mode,
"Press PAUSE key to EXIT" is displayed at the center of the observation monitor 28. The observation monitor 28 displays the current image captured by the CCD 14.

In the next step 202, it is determined whether or not the PAGE UP key has been operated. If "YES", reverse playback is performed in step 203.
It is determined whether or not the GE DOWN key has been operated, and “YE
In the case of "S", forward reproduction is executed in a step 205, it is determined in a step 206 whether or not the DEL key is operated, and in the case of "YES", a data file is deleted in a step 207. The input determination of the operation of the other keys shown in Table 1 is performed, whereby the operation of the function set in the reproduction mode can be performed.

Finally, it is determined in step 208 whether the PAUSE key has been operated. If "YES", the message is deleted in step 209 and the reproduction mode is ended. In this manner, in the playback mode, the message display on the observation monitor 28 makes it clear that the recorded image is currently being played back.
While viewing the recorded image, while the recorded image is being reproduced, key operations related to the observation mode, such as performing a zoom operation using the up and down arrow keys, and recording an image on the monitor 28 with a freeze switch, etc. Erroneous operation is prevented.

In this example, the case where the observation monitor 28 and the reproduction monitor 30 are separately provided has been described. However, in the case where the observation screen currently being imaged and the reproduction screen are switched and displayed on a single monitor, FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the above-mentioned “DF playing mode, Press PAU” is placed on the lower right side (or at any of the four corners) of the playback screen 32 in the playback mode and in a place that does not hinder playback image observation.
The message 33 "SE key to EXIT" is displayed. This also prevents erroneous operation of the keyboard 26, freeze switch, etc. The above message may be another message expressed in Japanese or the like. A message that informs the operator that playback is currently being performed and that the input function of the current operation unit is set to the playback mode is used.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In the electronic endoscope apparatus which performs various operations with the operation means and reproduces and displays the image recorded in the external recording device on the monitor, during execution of the reproduction mode, the image is currently being reproduced; A message indicating that the input function has been switched to the playback mode is displayed on the observation monitor (a separate monitor from the playback monitor). If the screen is switched on one monitor, the message is displayed on the playback screen. Since the display is performed, it is possible to easily determine whether the image displayed on the monitor and the current key function of the operation member are in the observation mode or the reproduction mode, and a user-friendly electronic endoscope device is obtained. There is an advantage.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electronic endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a message display on an observation monitor in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an observation mode operation of the microcomputer according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a reproduction mode operation of the microcomputer according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a message display when a single monitor switches and displays an observation screen and a reproduction screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: electronic scope, 14: CCD, 18: processor device, 20: DSP (Digital Signal Processo)
r), 24: microcomputer, 25: character generator, 26: keyboard, 28: monitor for observation, 2
9: Digital image file, 30: Monitor for reproduction.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) H04N 5/781 H04N 5/781 510C 7/18 5/91 LF term (reference) 2H040 DA21 DA22 GA02 GA10 GA12 4C061 CC06 JJ17 WW04 WW14 YY13 5C022 AA09 AB65 AC03 AC13 AC14 AC17 AC32 AC42 5C053 FA30 HA22 HA29 JA16 JA30 KA04 KA24 LA06 LA11 LA20 5C054 CC07 EA05 FF03 HA12

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A signal processing circuit for forming an image signal based on an output signal of an image sensor for imaging an object to be observed, an external recording device for recording the image signal formed by the signal processing circuit, and the signal processing circuit An electronic device comprising: a monitor that displays an image that is currently captured based on an output signal from the device and that reproduces and displays a recorded image recorded in the external recording device; and an operating unit that performs an input operation of various functions. In the endoscope apparatus, a control circuit for performing an observation mode control for endoscopic image observation and a reproduction mode control for image reproduction of the external recording device based on an operation of the operation means, and a control circuit for controlling the control circuit. A display processing circuit for displaying on the monitor a message indicating that the input function of the operation means has been switched to the playback mode during the image playback operation. Electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim. 2. When the monitor for endoscope observation and the monitor for image reproduction are separately provided as the monitor, the input function of the operation means is set to the reproduction mode on the monitor for endoscope observation during the image reproduction operation. 2. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a message indicating that switching has been performed and a message indicating that a recorded image is being reproduced are displayed. 3. When one monitor for switching and displaying between endoscope observation and image reproduction is provided as the monitor,
2. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a message indicating that an input function of the operation means is switched to a reproduction mode is displayed on a reproduction screen during an image reproducing operation.