Patent ID: 8045012

Claim:
A capsule endoscope comprising: an image pickup section configured to sequentially provide a color image data of an image pickup region; an analyzing section configured to analyze the color image data from the image pickup section, select one of a plurality of image processions which are predetermined based on the analysis result, and perform image processing; a transmitting section configured to transfer the color image data outside of a human body; and a magnet for operating the capsule endoscope by externally applying a magnetic force; a motion-detecting section provided in the analyzing section; a motion-determination section provided in the motion-detecting section; and an image-data-storage section provided in the analyzing section, wherein the analyzing section detects a movement of the image pickup region from successive color images the image-data-storage section stores the image data when the motion-determination section determines that the capsule endoscope is in “motionless” and a frame of the image data is not stored, the motion-determination section determines that the capsule endoscope is in “motion” when the result value of the motion-determining is greater than a threshold value, and the capsule endoscope is in “motionless” when the result value of the motion-determining is smaller than the threshold value, when a write address of the image-data-storage section reaches a maximum and the motion-determination section determines the capsule endoscope is in “motion”, the motion-determination section gives priority to outputting information from the image pickup section to outside of a human body, and when a write address of the image-data-storage section reaches a maximum and the motion-determination section determines the capsule endoscope is in “motionless”, the motion-determination section gives priority to outputting information of the image-data-storage section to outside of the human body.