Patent ID: 8343069

Claim:
An in-vivo information acquisition apparatus system comprising: an in-vivo information acquisition apparatus for acquiring in-vivo information at an examination site in a body cavity; a capsule medical apparatus having a storage section for storing the in-vivo information acquisition apparatus, a release unit for releasing the in-vivo information acquisition apparatus at the examination site, and a casing formed in a capsule shape; an external antenna arranged outside a body to transmit and receive a signal to and from the in-vivo information acquisition apparatus; an external apparatus that acquires a signal transmitted by the in-vivo information acquisition apparatus from the external antenna and has an identifying section for identifying the identification information possessed by a labeling section arranged inside the in-vivo information acquisition apparatus; a position-detecting section provided in at least one of the capsule medical apparatus and the external apparatus to detect a location of the in-vivo information acquisition apparatus in a body, the capsule medical apparatus releases the in-vivo information acquisition apparatus based on the location information of the capsule medical apparatus acquired by the position-detecting section, the position-detecting section includes: a magnetic-field generating section provided in the capsule medical apparatus; an external magnetic sensor arranged outside a subject; and a third determining section provided in the external apparatus to determine the location of the capsule medical apparatus based on a vector of a magnetic field generated by the magnetic-field generating section; and an external control section provided in the external apparatus to transmit a common control signal to a plurality of the in-vivo information acquisition apparatuses, wherein the capsule medical apparatus further includes a timer and a control section for controlling the release unit; and wherein the control section controls the release unit in a manner such that a desired number of the in-vivo information acquisition apparatuses are released from the release unit to the outside at a desired time based on time information of the timer.