Patents by Inventor Katsumi Hirakawa

Katsumi Hirakawa has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 9345396
    Abstract: A scanning endoscope system has a light guide portion that guides an illuminating light, a drive portion capable of causing the light guide portion to swing so that an irradiation position of the illuminating light draws a locus corresponding to a predetermined scanning pattern, a light detecting portion that receives a return light of the illuminating light and outputs a signal, a control portion that drives the drive portion to perform scan so that the irradiation position of the illuminating light becomes a locus in a spiral shape, and an image generating portion that generates an image of an object based on a signal outputted from the light detecting portion in a predetermined timing, wherein the control portion further performs control for driving the drive portion so that the irradiation position of the illuminating light circles on a same circumference in the predetermined timing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jun Hasegawa, Katsumi Hirakawa, Yuji Sakai
  • Patent number: 9042664
    Abstract: An image display apparatus that can shorten time for observing a series of images of an interior of a subject without hampering observation of a desired region of interest is provided. The image display apparatus according to the present invention is an image display apparatus for displaying the series of images of the interior of the subject picked up at time series, including an image extracting unit 15a that extracts images each having a feature of a desired region in the interior of the subject and that identifies the extracted images as images of the desired region among the series of images, and a frame rate controller 15b that sets a display frame rate for the identified images of the desired region to be different from a display frame rate for images of regions other than the desired region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Patent number: 8994804
    Abstract: A scanning endoscope system includes: a scanning endoscope including a light-guiding section that guides illumination light, a driving section that causes the light-guiding section to swing such that an irradiation position of the illumination light draws a trajectory corresponding to a predetermined scanning pattern; and a light-receiving section that receives return light of the illumination light; a test chart device including a plane portion having first and second regions; a light detection section that outputs a signal corresponding to an intensity of the return light; a pixel generation section that generates pixels on the predetermined scanning pattern; a first correction value calculation section that calculates a correction value based on a pixel value of each of the pixels in the first region; and a second correction value calculation section that calculates a correction based on a pixel position of each of the pixels in the second region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventors: Katsumi Hirakawa, Masahiro Yoshino
  • Patent number: 8900124
    Abstract: A device for displaying in vivo images picked up inside a subject in a time series. The device automatically detects lesion images contained in all in vivo images picked up over the time series. The device displays an elongated display area having a time scale assigned along a longitudinal direction thereof and an indicator which moves along the time scale to indicate a time position in the time scale which corresponds to a current in vivo image currently displayed in a main display area. In response to a detection of the lesion image, the device makes pixels located at a time position in the elongated display area which position corresponds to the lesion image to emit light in a predetermined pixel-display mode. The display mode of the indicator is controlled in response to information on a lesion that is possible to be contained in the current in vivo image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventor: Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Patent number: 8882658
    Abstract: An endoscope system includes: an endoscope that has a light guiding member that guides an illuminating light, an optical system that irradiates the illuminating light onto an object, and a drive portion that rocks the light guiding member so that the illuminating light is irradiated along a predetermined scanning pattern; a coordinate information acquisition portion that can identify an irradiation position; a storage portion in which information regarding chromatic aberration of magnification caused by the optical system, is previously stored a correction information acquisition portion that, upon detecting that light of the predetermined wavelength band is irradiated onto a position corresponding to a predetermined image height, detects an aberration amount of the light of the other wavelength band and outputs image correction information that corrects chromatic aberration of magnification based on the aberration amount; and an image processing portion that performs image correction processing based on the
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventors: Yuji Sakai, Tsutomu Uzawa, Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Publication number: 20140296634
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to actively control at least one of the position and direction of the imaging field in a subject and to observe a desired observed region in the subject certainly in a short period of time. A body-insertable device system according to the present invention includes a capsule endoscope 1 introduced into a subject and a permanent magnet 3. An imaging unit of the capsule endoscope 1 for taking an image inside the subject is fixed in a casing. The capsule endoscope 1 includes a drive unit for changing at least one of the position and posture of the casing in the liquid 2a which is also introduced in the subject 100. The permanent magnet 3 controls the operation of the drive unit for changing at least one of the position and posture of the casing in the liquid 2a.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2014
    Publication date: October 2, 2014
    Applicant: OLYMPUS MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORP.
    Inventors: Hironao KAWANO, Hironobu TAKIZAWA, Hidetake SEGAWA, Isao AOKI, Katsumi Hirakawa, Satomi KOBAYASHI, Hideo ITO
  • Patent number: 8830307
    Abstract: To reduce a display time of an image for which an observation is less required, and to effectively perform an observation of a series of images, the image display apparatus (1) includes an image processing controller (2a) that acquires an image from a storage unit (5), controls various image processes for the acquired image, and stores an image of a processing result in the storage unit (5), an image classification unit (2b) that calculates a correlation value between temporally continuous images and classifies each of the images into an image group based on the calculated correlation value, an image-of-interest detecting unit (2c) that detects a feature-image area including a predetermined feature from each of the images, and detects the feature image including the detected feature-image area as an image-of-interest, a representative-image extracting unit (2d) that extracts the image-of-interest and a first image in each of the image groups as a representative image and sets a display rate for each of the ex
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventor: Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Publication number: 20140210975
    Abstract: A scanning endoscope system includes: a scanning endoscope including a light-guiding section that guides illumination light, a driving section that causes the light-guiding section to swing such that an irradiation position of the illumination light draws a trajectory corresponding to a predetermined scanning pattern; and a light-receiving section that receives return light of the illumination light; a test chart device including a plane portion having first and second regions; a light detection section that outputs a signal corresponding to an intensity of the return light; a pixel generation section that generates pixels on the predetermined scanning pattern; a first correction value calculation section that calculates a correction value based on a pixel value of each of the pixels in the first region; and a second correction value calculation section that calculates a correction based on a pixel position of each of the pixels in the second region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2014
    Publication date: July 31, 2014
    Applicant: OLYMPUS MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORP.
    Inventors: Katsumi HIRAKAWA, Masahiro YOSHINO
  • Patent number: 8790247
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to actively control at least one of the position and direction of the imaging field in a subject and to observe a desired observed region in the subject certainly in a short period of time. A body-insertable device system according to the present invention includes a capsule endoscope 1 introduced into a subject and a permanent magnet 3. An imaging unit of the capsule endoscope 1 for taking an image inside the subject is fixed in a casing. The capsule endoscope 1 includes a drive unit for changing at least one of the position and posture of the casing in the liquid 2a which is also introduced in the subject 100. The permanent magnet 3 controls the operation of the drive unit for changing at least one of the position and posture of the casing in the liquid 2a.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventors: Hironao Kawano, Hironobu Takizawa, Hidetake Segawa, Isao Aoki, Katsumi Hirakawa, Satomi Kobayashi, Hideo Ito
  • Patent number: 8790248
    Abstract: An indwelling apparatus (5) for holding a capsule endoscope (3) is arranged with a control device (57) including an optical sensor (73), a control board (66) configuring a controller and a reset circuit, a driver board (68) configuring an electromagnet driver, and an electromagnet (70), where when the optical sensor (73) detects the light, the controller performs the drive control of the electromagnet (70) at every constant time interval to turn ON the reed switch (14) and supply power to the capsule endoscope (3) thereby operating the capsule endoscope (3) only when observation is necessary, and thus the battery drain of the capsule endoscope is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignees: Olympus Medical Systems Corp., Olympus Corporation
    Inventors: Akio Uchiyama, Hironobu Takizawa, Shinsuke Tanaka, Katsumi Hirakawa, Takeshi Yokoi
  • Publication number: 20140184768
    Abstract: A scanning endoscope system has a light guide portion that guides an illuminating light, a drive portion capable of causing the light guide portion to swing so that an irradiation position of the illuminating light draws a locus corresponding to a predetermined scanning pattern, a light detecting portion that receives a return light of the illuminating light and outputs a signal, a control portion that drives the drive portion to perform scan so that the irradiation position of the illuminating light becomes a locus in a spiral shape, and an image generating portion that generates an image of an object based on a signal outputted from the light detecting portion in a predetermined timing, wherein the control portion further performs control for driving the drive portion so that the irradiation position of the illuminating light circles on a same circumference in the predetermined timing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 23, 2014
    Publication date: July 3, 2014
    Applicant: OLYMPUS MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORP.
    Inventors: Jun HASEGAWA, Katsumi HIRAKAWA, Yuji SAKAI
  • Patent number: 8698886
    Abstract: An apparatus for estimating a shape of an insertion portion includes an insertion portion, an acceleration calculation unit calculating acceleration at measurement points, and a determination unit which determines whether the measurement points move. The apparatus further includes an attitude information calculation unit calculating attitude information of the measurement points in a resting state, an attitude estimation unit estimating a movement period attitude, a movement vector calculation unit calculating a movement vector of the measurement points, and a position calculation unit calculating a position of the measurement points. The apparatus further includes an image generation unit generating a display image expressing the position and the movement vector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventor: Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Publication number: 20140088363
    Abstract: An endoscope system includes: an endoscope that has a light guiding member that guides an illuminating light, an optical system that irradiates the illuminating light onto an object, and a drive portion that rocks the light guiding member so that the illuminating light is irradiated along a predetermined scanning pattern; a coordinate information acquisition portion that can identify an irradiation position; a storage portion in which information regarding chromatic aberration of magnification caused by the optical system, is previously stored a correction information acquisition portion that, upon detecting that light of the predetermined wavelength band is irradiated onto a position corresponding to a predetermined image height, detects an aberration amount of the light of the other wavelength band and outputs image correction information that corrects chromatic aberration of magnification based on the aberration amount; and an image processing portion that performs image correction processing based on the
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2013
    Publication date: March 27, 2014
    Applicant: OLYMPUS MEDICAL SYSTEMS CORP.
    Inventors: Yuji SAKAI, Tsutomu UZAWA, Katsumi HIRAKAWA
  • Patent number: 8632459
    Abstract: An intra-subject observation system includes a first liquid inserted into a desired organ of a subject; and a second liquid inserted into the organ without being mixed with the first liquid due to a specific gravity lighter than that of the first liquid. The system also includes a capsule medical apparatus inserted into the organ with an intermediate specific gravity between the specific gravity of the first liquid and that of the second liquid to acquire intra-subject information, which is output out of the subject by radio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2014
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Sytems Corp.
    Inventors: Isao Aoki, Katsumi Hirakawa, Hironobu Takizawa, Hidetake Segawa, Hironao Kawano, Hideo Ito, Hideki Shimonaka
  • Patent number: 8585585
    Abstract: An endoscopic form detection device includes a posture detecting section configured to detect a posture of each of sensor units based on measurement data in the sensor unit, and a linear form detecting section configured to detect a detected linear form of an inserting section on an assumption that a form between the respective sensor units is a linear link whose dimension is equal to an inter-sensor dimension based on the detected posture of each of the sensor units. The endoscopic form detection device includes a form correcting section configured to compensate at least a position of each of the sensor units by using a particle filter, and configured to detect a corrected form obtained by correcting the detected linear form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventor: Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Publication number: 20130293692
    Abstract: An image display apparatus that can shorten time for observing a series of images of an interior of a subject without hampering observation of a desired region of interest is provided. The image display apparatus according to the present invention is an image display apparatus for displaying the series of images of the interior of the subject picked up at time series, including an image extracting unit 15a that extracts images each having a feature of a desired region in the interior of the subject and that identifies the extracted images as images of the desired region among the series of images, and a frame rate controller 15b that sets a display frame rate for the identified images of the desired region to be different from a display frame rate for images of regions other than the desired region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 10, 2013
    Publication date: November 7, 2013
    Inventor: Katsumi HIRAKAWA
  • Patent number: 8502861
    Abstract: To reduce a display time of an image for which an observation is less required, and to effectively perform an observation of a series of images, the image display apparatus (1) includes an image processing controller (2a) that acquires an image from a storage unit (5), controls various image processes for the acquired image, and stores an image of a processing result in the storage unit (5), an image classification unit (2b) that calculates a correlation value between temporally continuous images and classifies each of the images into an image group based on the calculated correlation value, an image-of-interest detecting unit (2c) that detects a feature-image area including a predetermined feature from each of the images, and detects the feature image including the detected feature-image area as an image-of-interest, a representative-image extractor (2d) that extracts the image-of-interest and a first image in each of the image groups as a representative image and sets a display rate for each of the extracte
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2013
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventor: Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Patent number: 8491464
    Abstract: To stably and properly monitor an inside of a body by using an easily operable placement technique, a capsule endoscope 101 to be swallowed from an oral cavity 200 to acquire in-vivo information of a subject 201 and to wirelessly output for a transmission of the in-vivo information to an outside of a body, a string member 103 that is connected to the capsule endoscope 101 for positioning the capsule endoscope 101 at a gastric cardia 202, and a fixing portion 104 that is a portion of the string member 103, is provided on a position with which a length from the capsule endoscope 101 corresponds to a length from the gastric cardia 202 to the inside of an esophageal region 203 for fixing the string member 103 that has located the capsule endoscope 101 at the gastric cardia 202 to the inside of the esophageal region 203 by an endoscopic fixture are included.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignees: Olympus Corporation, Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventors: Takeshi Yokoi, Katsumi Hirakawa, Akio Uchiyama, Shinsuke Tanaka, Hironobu Takizawa, Manabu Fujita
  • Patent number: 8467615
    Abstract: An image display apparatus that can shorten time for observing a series of images of an interior of a subject without hampering observation of a desired region of interest is provided. The image display apparatus according to the present invention is an image display apparatus for displaying the series of images of the interior of the subject picked up at time series, including an image extracting unit 15a that extracts images each having a feature of a desired region in the interior of the subject and that identifies the extracted images as images of the desired region among the series of images, and a frame rate controller 15b that sets a display frame rate for the identified images of the desired region to be different from a display frame rate for images of regions other than the desired region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: Olympus Corporation
    Inventor: Katsumi Hirakawa
  • Patent number: 8439826
    Abstract: A medical instrument including a distortion detection probe disposed in an insertion portion to be inserted into the interior of an examinee provided with a plurality of FBG sensor sections that detect distortion of the insertion portion, a coordinate calculation section that calculates first three-dimensional coordinates of the respective FBG sensor sections according to a first three-dimensional coordinate system whose origin is a predetermined position based on the detection results of the FBG sensor sections, a coordinate system setting section that sets a second three-dimensional coordinate system based on the first three-dimensional coordinates of the respective FBG sensor sections, a coordinate transformation section that transforms the first three-dimensional coordinates of the respective FBG sensor sections into second three-dimensional coordinates according to the second three-dimensional coordinate system set by the coordinate system setting section and a shape display section that displays the sha
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2013
    Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corp.
    Inventors: Fumiyuki Onoda, Hiroyuki Ushifusa, Tomohiko Oda, Jun Hasegawa, Masami Fukuchi, Katsumi Hirakawa