Patent ID: 7214182

Claim:
A wireless in-vivo information acquiring system comprising: a body-insertable device that is inserted into a body of a patient; and an external device that is disposed on outside of the body of the patient, wherein the external device includes a power source that outputs a power-supply signal for supplying power to the body-insertable device; a power supply signal transmitting unit that wirelessly supplies the power supply signal from the power source to the body-insertable device; and a control signal superposing unit that superposes a drive control signal on the power supply signal from the power source, the drive control signal indicating whether to request in-vivo information, and the body-insertable device includes a function executing unit that executes a predetermined function to acquire in-vivo information on the body of the patient; a separating unit that separates the drive control signal from the power supply signal; a power accumulating unit that receives the power supply signal after the separating unit separates the drive control signal; a control signal detecting unit that detects the drive control signal superposed on the power supply signal; and a system controller that controls the function executing unit to execute the predetermined function while supplying power accumulated in the power accumulating unit to the function executing unit when the drive control signal indicates a request for in-vivo information, and stops supplying the power to the function executing unit when the drive control signal does not indicate the request for in-vivo information; wherein the body-insertable device further includes a level determining unit that determines a level of power of the power supply signal transmitted from the external device to transmit a level determining signal indicating the level of power to the external device and the external device further includes a power supply level detecting unit that detects the level determining signal and a power directivity detecting unit that amplifies the power-supply signal to be transmitted to the body-insertable device, based on the level determining signal.