Patent ID: 9492064
Filing Date: 2016-11-15
CPC Classification: A61B

Claim Text:
1. A capsule endoscope, comprising: a capsule casing and interior components housed therein whose total specific gravity is set such that the capsule casing floats in liquid introduced into a subject; a gravity center position setting unit that sets a position of center of gravity of the capsule casing at a decentered position so that the capsule casing is stabilized in the liquid introduced into the subject without rotating except for rotation about an axis in a direction of the center of gravity; and an imager that takes an in-vivo image in a body cavity with an imaging field being set so that a surface of the liquid is out of view when the capsule casing floats in the liquid introduced into the subject in a stabilized posture; wherein the imager includes an imaging optical system whose optical axis is inclined to a longitudinal axis of the capsule casing; and the optical axis of the imaging optical system is inclined with respect to the surface of the liquid so as to satisfy a relation of: where an inclination angle of the optical axis of the imaging optical system with respect to the surface of the liquid is α, and a maximum angle of view is 2ω.