Endoscopes comprising a reusable hand-piece and separable disposable shaft assembly are illustrated and described. The reusable hand-piece includes a housing having an articulation control mounted thereto and an electronics module mounted thereto. The articulation control includes control knobs and concentric drive shafts for articulation. The electronics module includes a battery, a control board, and an optical and/or electrical connector. The separable disposable shaft comprises a housing having an articulation wire actuating assembly mounted thereto and an optical and/or electrical connector mounted thereto. When the housing of the hand-piece and the housing of the separable disposable shaft assembly are joined together, the articulation control engages the articulation wire actuating assembly and the optical and/or electrical connector of the reusable hand-piece engages the optical and/or electrical connector of the disposable shaft assembly.

A visual tooth cleaning, grinding and polishing instrument includes a host, an oral observation instrument and a cleaning and polishing tool. The host can drive the cleaning and polishing tool and supply a power source and a control system for an illuminating system, an observation system and the oral observation instrument. A picture shot by a camera of the observation system can be transmitted to a display of the observation system in time, so as to achieve the purposes of cleaning the teeth while observing a process of cleaning the dental calculus, dental plaque and pigmentation on the surface of the teeth with the cleaning and polishing tool and the cleaning effect instantly on a mobile phone, thereby effectively cleaning, grinding and polishing the teeth. A flusher or an electric toothbrush head or other interdental cleaning tools may also be mounted on the host or the oral observation instrument.

The present invention discloses a control method, system, electronic device and readable storage medium for a capsule endoscope. The method includes: providing a working apparatus, comprising a capsule endoscope, and an external data recorder for cooperating with and controlling the capsule endoscope; monitoring the received ambient power by the external data recorder before wireless transmission of the capsule endoscope or during an intermittence between two transmissions, and/or monitoring the output power of the capsule endoscope by the external data recorder as data is transmitted during wireless transmission; adjusting the operating state of the working apparatus according to the ambient power and/or output power. The present invention can monitor the power during the dormant period before image interaction and/or in the process of image interaction, thus adjust the operating state of the capsule endoscope in real time, which can improve the wireless communication performance and operating time of the capsule endoscope.

Controlled motion capsules and associated systems and methods are described. Controlled motion capsules can decelerate, and stop, without damaging epithelial walls. If any components fail, a controlled motion capsule, without added energy, becomes its most compact shape, passing harmlessly through the GI tract. Controlled motion capsule may include a shape changing material, comprising a reversible soft copolymer, in a container in the capsule, with a nonionizing radiation emitter, and a controller to activate the nonionizing radiation to expand and contract the shape changing material, on detection of certain conditions or instructions. Expansion of the shape changing material, including contact with epithelial walls, decelerates and can stop the controlled motion capsule movement. Motion control allows scientists to study the microbiome, doctors to deliver intestinal drugs at precise locations, and to closely examine signs of precancerous growth.

A method for imaging a patient's gastrointestinal tract using a capsule camera and a patient positioning system are disclosed. According to the method, the capsule camera is administered to a patient by swallowing the capsule camera through patient's mouth. For each target examination position selected from a set of examination positions: the patient positioning system is adjusted to a target positioner bed position associated with the target examination position with the patient on the positioner be. Adjusting patient positioning system comprises adjusting the positioner bed to tilt at a tilt angle, and wherein the set of examination positions comprises at least two different tilt angles; and the patient positioning system still is held at the target examination position for a pre-defined period of dwelling time to allow the capsule camera to capture stable pictures. Image data captured by the capsule camera are then collected.

Disclosed is a peroral endoscopic apparatus of a swallowable type, the peroral endoscopic apparatus including: at least one imaging unit configured to perform imaging of a human body digestive system and output image data; at least one ultrasonic unit configured to output ultrasonic data on a submucosal region of the digestive system and a peripheral organ located therearound; a magnetic unit configured to adjust a position, a posture, and a proceeding direction of the peroral endoscopic apparatus in response to an external magnetic force; a transceiving unit configured to transmit the image data and the ultrasonic data to an external device or receive an external control signal; a control unit configured to control the imaging unit and the ultrasonic unit to perform imaging of the digestive system and the submucosal region simultaneously or individually; and a power supply unit configured to supply power.

Provided are a capsule endoscope apparatus for supporting a lesion diagnosis and a lesion diagnosis supporting method using the same. The capsule endoscope apparatus for supporting lesion diagnosis includes an imaging unit configured to capture one or more images of an inside of a body, a control unit configured to detect a suspected lesion region in the images and perform a precision diagnosis procedure when a suspected lesion region corresponding to a value equal to or greater than a certain threshold is detected, an image processing unit configured to process the images in the precision diagnosis procedure, and a communication module configured to transmit and receive processed images to another capsule endoscope apparatus or a terminal by using a wireless communication method.

An endoscope apparatus includes a compression processing control unit configured to carry out a compression processing of compressing image data by using a compression parameter to generate compressed data, a monitor that is a display unit configured to display a display image corresponding to the image data, an information quantity detection unit configured to detect a quantity of information on an object contained in the image data, and a judgement unit configured to carry out a judgement processing of judging whether or not a judgement value corresponding to the quantity of information is smaller than a predetermined threshold. The image pickup of the object and the generation of the image data are continuously performed multiple times, and the judgement processing is carried out whenever the image data is generated. The compression parameter and the display image are determined based on a result of the judgement processing.

A deployable and flexible tooltip camera is provided for integration within a shaft of an endoscopic tool. The tooltip camera includes a camera mounted to a distal tip of a curved tube which is capable of rotational and translational movement to provide a wide field of view of a tooltip of the endoscopic tool during an endoscopic procedure. The tube retains its curved shape when in use to provide a unique perspective view of the tooltip, but can then be withdrawn into a shaft of the endoscopic tool such that the entire tooltip camera and tube are retained within the shaft of the endoscopic tool and can pass through a cannula. The curved tube may be formed of a super-elastic memory alloy like Nitinol and pre-shaped into an s-curve using a two-step heat treatment process to attain the necessary curvature, and further laser-patterned with holes to attain the necessary flexibility.

A probe includes an articulating member with at least two vertebrae elements sequentially arranged along a long axis of the elongate ultrasound imaging probe. The articulating member includes pivots located between the at least two vertebrae elements. The pivots are disposed off-center relative to the at least two vertebrae elements. The pivots are spatially oriented to provide a pivot point for a different articulation direction of a vertebra element. The probe further includes a plurality of guides, including at least one guide for each of the respective different pivot directions. The probe further includes an actuator with a set of controls, each control configured to actuate a different pair of the plurality of guides for controlling opposing articulation directions, wherein the actuator reduces stress induced on at least one of a pushed guide or a non-activated guide, wherein the stress is induced in response to the actuator pulling a guide.