Patent ID: 6494827
Filing Date: 2002-12-17
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
An endoscope apparatus capable of alerting a user of exhaustion of a battery, comprising:an endoscope having a light guide fiber bundle over which illumination light is propagated; a battery-powered light source having an illumination lamp, freely detachably attached to said endoscope, for supplying illumination light to the incidence end of said light guide fiber bundle on which illumination light falls, and a battery serving as a power supply that causes said illumination lamp to light, wherein at least one of said endoscope and battery-powered light source includes a notifying means for notifying a user of an amount of electrical energy contained in a battery; and said notifying means comprises: an electrical battery energy detecting means for detecting an amount of electrical energy contained in a battery and a capacity-of-battery reporting means for informing a user of the amount of electrical energy contained in the battery; wherein said capacity-of-battery reporting means is an indication unit for indicating a current amount of electrical energy contained in a battery according to the result of detection performed by said electrical battery energy detecting means; and wherein said indication unit is within a user's field of vision when said user is viewing an image through said endoscope.