Patent ID: 8444550

Claim:
A capsule medical device guidance system, comprising: a capsule medical device to be introduced into a subject, the capsule medical device including an imaging unit that captures an in-vivo image of the subject, a transmitting unit that transmits the image captured by the imaging unit to an outside, and a magnetic field response unit; a magnetic field generation unit that generates a magnetic field for the magnetic field response unit to magnetically guide the capsule medical device; a receiving unit that receives the in-vivo image of the subject transmitted by the capsule medical device; a display unit that displays the in-vivo image of the subject received by the receiving unit; an operation input unit that inputs operation information for magnetically guiding the capsule medical device; a control unit that controls the magnetic field generation unit to guide the capsule medical device in accordance with the operation information input by the operation input unit; and a selection unit having a switch corresponding to each of two or more guidance areas into which the capsule medical device is guided, the two or more guidance areas including two or more of a liquid surface that is an upper boundary surface between a liquid inside the subject and the outside, a submerged area, and a liquid bottom that is a lower boundary surface between the liquid and the outside, wherein the control unit switches the magnetic field to be generated by the magnetic field generation unit in accordance with the guidance area selected by the selection unit.