KR20160147190A

KR20160147190A - Endoscope device

Info

Publication number: KR20160147190A
Application number: KR1020150083606A
Authority: KR
Inventors: 이재선; 연제선; 홍승철; 심동하; 차재상
Original assignee: 해성옵틱스(주); 서울과학기술대학교 산학협력단
Priority date: 2015-06-12
Filing date: 2015-06-12
Publication date: 2016-12-22

Abstract

The present invention includes: a tip module which is inserted into a body, takes an image, converts a taken image signal into a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) image signal, and transmits the MIPI image signal through a cable; a handle module which processes the MIPI image signal transmitted from the tip module through the cable and transmits the processed MIPI image signal; and an image output module which receives image data transmitted from the handle module, processes the image data, and outputs the processed image data. Accordingly, the present invention can transmit a high resolution image transmitted and received between the tip module and the handle module with low noise and low power.

Description

[0001] ENDOSCOPE DEVICE [0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, and more particularly to an endoscope apparatus that captures a narrow space of a human body or a machine.

The endoscope enables to observe and observe a narrow space inside the human body or inside the machine. In particular, the endoscope used in the medical field can be checked by observing the inside of the human body (stomach, bronchus, esophagus, large intestine, small intestine, etc.) by using a small camera without opening or cutting the body such as surgery or autopsy do.

In general, an endoscope system includes a light source for irradiating a white light for viewing the internal organs of the body or the internal surface of a machine, and an imaging device for receiving an optical signal reflected from the surface of the internal organs of the body and converting the light into an electrical signal And an imaging element assembly including the imaging element assembly.

Such an endoscope apparatus employs a CCD (Charge Coupled Devices) sensor and a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensor as image pickup devices, and thus it has been possible to obtain a high-quality image.

However, since the CCD sensor or the CMOS sensor is applied to the image pickup device, the conventional endoscope device is insufficient to transmit a large-capacity high-resolution image due to the limitation of the transmission speed.

BACKGROUND ART [0002] The background art of the present invention is disclosed in 'Electronic Endoscope System' of Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2008-0051154 (Jun. 10, 2008).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a low-noise and low-power high-resolution image transmitted / received between a tip module and a handle module by using an endoscopic camera image sensor of MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface) And an endoscopic device capable of transmitting an endoscope.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope apparatus in which the size of the tip module is reduced by separating an image signal processor (ISP) included in the image sensor from the image sensor to reduce the size of the image sensor .

An endoscope apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes: a tip module that is inserted into a body and captures an image, converts a captured image signal into a Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) image signal, and transmits the image signal through a cable; A handle module for processing and transmitting the MIPI video signal transmitted through the cable from the tip module; And a video output module for receiving, processing, and outputting image data transmitted from the handle module.

In the present invention, the tip module may include an illumination unit for illuminating the body; lens; And an image sensor which photographs the body through the lens in the illuminated state through the illumination unit, converts the photographed image signal into a MIPI signal, and transmits the MIPI signal to the tip module through the cable.

In the present invention, the handle module may include an image signal processor for performing an image correction process on the MIPI image signal transmitted from the tip module.

In the present invention, the handle module may further include a transmitter for transmitting the signal processed by the video signal processor to the video output module.

In the present invention, the video output module may include: a receiver for receiving image data transmitted from the handle module; A display server for processing and analyzing image data received at the receiver; And a display device for displaying an image transmitted from the display server.

The present invention makes it possible to transmit a high resolution image transmitted between a tip module and a handle module using low noise and low power by using the MIPI scheme.

The present invention reduces the size of the image sensor so that the size of the endoscope tip module can be reduced.

1 is a block diagram of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram of a tip module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a communication method between a tip module and a handle module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a diagram illustrating another example of a communication method between a tip module and a handle module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a block diagram of a handle module according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a block diagram of a video output module according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this process, the thicknesses of the lines and the sizes of the components shown in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity and convenience of explanation. Further, the terms described below are defined in consideration of the functions of the present invention, which may vary depending on the user, the intention or custom of the operator. Therefore, definitions of these terms should be made based on the contents throughout this specification.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a tip module according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a tip according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a diagram illustrating another example of a communication method between a tip module and a handle module according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a video output module according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a tip module 10, a handle module 30, and a video output module 40.

The tip module 10 is inserted into the body, captures an image, converts the captured image signal into a Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) signal, and transmits the signal through the cable 20. The tip module 10 includes an illumination section 12, a lens 11 and an image sensor 13 as shown in Fig.

The illuminating unit 12 illuminates the inside of the body and allows images of sufficient brightness to be captured. The light emitted from the illuminating unit 12 is reflected on the body tissue or the like and is incident on the image sensor 13. [ As the illumination unit 12, an LED (Light Emitting Diode) or the like may be employed.

The image sensor 13 is provided at a position corresponding to the lens 11 to photograph the inside of the body and convert the photographed image into a MIPI signal. The image sensor 13 transmits the converted MIPI signal to the handle module 30 via the cable 20.

The image sensor 13 may be a digital CMOS (Complementary) system using a sub-LVDS transmission method similar to MIPI D-PHY (CSI-2 (Camera Serial Interface 2) Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) image sensor may be employed.

A digital CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor) CMOS image sensor 13 of MIPI D-PHY (CSI-2) can realize a high-resolution endoscopic image transmission at low power. CSI-2 uses a low-voltage differential signaling (sub-LVDS) signal transmission scheme, which is stronger than conventional single-ended systems.

The cable 20 is connected at one end to the tip module 10 and at the other end to the handle module 30 and includes a plurality of sheathed wires. The cable 20 transfers the MIPI signal generated in the tip module 10 to the handle module 30. The cable 20 is made of sufficient length to allow the tip module 10 to reach a point of interest in the body.

The handle module 30 transfers the MIPI signal transmitted through the cable 20 from the tip module 10 to the video output module 40 through the video signal processor 31 and the transmitter 32.

Here, various communication methods may be employed between the handle module 30 and the video output module 40. [

As shown in FIG. 3, the communication methods between the handle module 30 and the video output module 40 include UWB (Ultra Wide Band), Wi-fi (wireless fidelity), wireless HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) (Millimeter-wave, MMW) method or the like may be employed.

4, a wired communication method such as USB (Universal Serial Bus) or HDMI may be employed as a communication method between the handle module 30 and the video output module 40. [

In addition, the communication method between the handle module 30 and the image output module 40 may be a combination of the wired method and the wireless method, or a plurality of wired methods or a plurality of wireless methods. Such a communication method may be a combination of USB and Wi-Fi, a combination of USB and UWB, a combination of UWB and Wi-Fi, or a combination of UWB and millimeter wave.

For reference, the communication method between the handle module 30 and the video output module 40 is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various communication methods may be employed as needed.

In this embodiment, communication between the handle module 30 and the image output module 40 is performed using a wireless communication method and the corresponding image is displayed.

Referring to FIG. 5, the handle module 30 includes an image signal processor (ISP) 31, a transmitter 32, and a power management unit 33.

The image signal processor 31 performs an image correction process on the MIPI signal transmitted from the tip module 10 to correct colors, brightness, distortion, and the like of the image. Particularly, the image signal processor 31 is separated from the image sensor 13 and disposed in the handle module 30 to achieve miniaturization of the image sensor 13, thereby achieving miniaturization of the tip module 10 have.

The transmitter 32 uses one or more of the above-described wired / wireless communication methods, for example, UWB, Wi-fi, wireless HDMI, USB, and HDMI.

The transmitter 32 transmits the signal input from the video signal processor 31 to the video output module 40.

When the transmitter 32 and the receiver 41 of FIG. 6 use UWB communication capable of securing a sufficient bandwidth or millimeter wave communication (60 GHz) of 30 to 300 GHz band, the high- Can be transmitted and received without performing image compression and decompression, thereby enabling delay-free transmission without time delay due to compression and decompression.

The power management unit 33 manages the power required for the operation of the handle module 30 and the tip module 10. [

The power management unit 33 in the handle module 30 converts the voltages supplied by the internal or external power source and supplies various voltages required for the tip module 10, the video signal processor 31, and the transmitter 32 .

Referring to FIG. 6, the video output module 40 processes the wire / wireless video signal transmitted from the handle module 30 and outputs the signal to the display device 43. The video output module 40 includes a receiver 41, a display server 42, and a display device 43.

The display device 43 outputs the video signal inputted from the display server 42. The display device 43 may employ not only an ordinary monitor but also various devices capable of displaying images.

Hereinafter, an operation of the endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

First, with the tip module 10 inserted in the body, the illumination unit 12 illuminates the body and the image sensor 13 takes images.

The image sensor 13 converts the photographed image signal into a MIPI signal and transmits the MIPI signal through the cable 20.

The cable 20 transfers the MIPI signal generated by the image sensor 13 to the handle module 30.

When the MIPI signal is transmitted through the cable 20, the image signal processor 311 performs image processing on the MIPI signal transmitted from the tip module 10 to correct the image, and transmits the corrected image signal to the transmitter 32).

The transmitter 32 transmits video data to the video output module 40 in a wireless communication manner.

In this case, the power management unit 33 supplies the power of the tip module 10 and the handle module 30.

Meanwhile, the receiver 41 of the video output module 40 receives the wireless signal transmitted from the transmitter 32 of the handle module 30.

The image data output from the receiver 41 is then transmitted to the display server 42.

The display server 42 processes and analyzes the signal received from the receiver 41 and outputs it through the display device 43.

As described above, the present embodiment allows a high-resolution image transmitted / received between the tip module 10 and the handle module 30 to be transmitted with low noise and low power by using the MIPI scheme.

The present embodiment reduces the size of the image sensor 13 so that the size of the tip module 10 can be reduced.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is clearly understood that the same is by way of illustration and example only and is not to be taken by way of limitation, I will understand. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the following claims.

10: Tip Module
11: Lens
12:
13: Image sensor
20: Cable
30: Handle module
31: Video signal processor
32: Transmitter
33: Power management unit
40: Video output module
41: receiver
42: Display server
43: Display device

Claims

A tip module inserted into a body to capture an image, convert the captured image signal into a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) image signal, and transmit the image signal through a cable;
A handle module for processing and transmitting the MIPI video signal transmitted through the cable from the tip module; And
And an image output module for receiving, processing, and outputting image data transmitted from the handle module.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tip module
An illumination unit for illuminating the body;
lens; And
And an image sensor that photographs the subject through the lens in a state illuminated through the illumination unit, converts the captured image signal into a MIPI signal, and transmits the MIPI signal to the tip module via the cable.

[2] The apparatus of claim 1,
And an image signal processor for performing an image correction process on the MIPI image signal transmitted from the tip module.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the handle module
And a transmitter for transmitting a signal processed by the video signal processor to the video output module.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the image output module
A receiver for receiving image data transmitted from the handle module;
A display server for processing and analyzing image data received at the receiver; And
And a display device for displaying the image transmitted from the display server.