Patent ID: 6939292
Filing Date: 2005-09-06
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A capsule type endoscope comprising: a capsule body comprising a forward part and a rearward part with respect to a direction in which a subject swallows the capsule body, the forward part having a larger diameter than the rearward part, the capsule body further having a soft flat tail at the rearward part; an illuminating unit provided in the capsule body and configured to illuminate an inside of a living body; an image pickup element provided in the capsule body and configured to take images in a living body illuminated by the illuminating unit and to generate signals from the images taken; a processing circuit provided in the capsule body and configured to process the signals, thereby to generate image signals; a memory provided in the capsule body and configured to store the image signals; a transmitting circuit provided in the capsule body and configured to read the image signals from the memory and convert the image signals to signals to be transmitted; an antenna configured to transmit the transmit signals from the living body, without using wires; and a timer configured to set an operation schedule, wherein the image pickup element, image processing circuit, memory, transmitting circuit and antenna operate in accordance with the operation schedule set by the timer.