1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus that receives radio image signals transmitted from a body-insertable apparatus, such as a swallowable capsule endoscope, inserted into a subject body by employing plural antennas arranged outside of the subject body. More particularly, the present invention relates to the receiving apparatus that performs image processing on the received radio image signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a capsule endoscope having an imaging function and a radio communication function makes an appearance in a field of endoscope. The capsule endoscope is swallowed from a mouth of a patient, i.e., the subject body for an observation (examination), and is eventually discharged naturally from a living body (human body) of the patient. While the capsule endoscope is inside the subject body, i.e., during an observation period, the capsule endoscope travels through organs (through body cavity) such as a stomach and a small intestine while following peristaltic motion of the organs, and the capsule endoscope sequentially images inside the organs by using the imaging function.
Further, during the observation period, i.e., while the capsule endoscope travels through the organs, image data obtained inside the body cavity by the capsule endoscope are sequentially transmitted outside of the subject body by the radio communication function such as Bluetooth, and stored in a memory that is provided inside an external receiving apparatus. When the patient carries around the receiving apparatus that has the radio communication function and a memory function, the patient can freely move without any inconveniences even during the observation period, i.e., after swallowing the capsule endoscope until discharging the capsule endoscope. After the observation, a doctor or a nurse can display an image inside the body cavity on a display unit such as a display based on the image data stored in the memory of the receiving apparatus to make a diagnosis.
In general, the receiving apparatus includes plural antennas dispersively arranged outside of the subject body to receive image signals transmitted from the capsule endoscope, and switchably selects one antenna that has small error in receiving the image signals to receive the image signals, and performs image processing on the received image signals. In a medical apparatus proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-325439, a capsule ID corresponding to a unique number such as a capsule serial number is superposed on image signals of the capsule, and externally transmitted in a frame format, so that a capsule-side switch for identifier setting is not necessary and an amount of information of the identifier is reduced.