In recent years, a digitalized radiographic image detecting device has been employed as a method for acquiring a radiographic image, including the processes of irradiating radial rays onto a subject and detecting radial rays penetrated through the subject. For this purpose, so-called FPD (Flat Panel Detector) can be employed for the radiographic image detecting device above-mentioned.
For instance, a certain FPD is so constituted that a plurality of detecting elements are two-dimensionally aligned on a substrate, and radial rays penetrated through the subject are irradiated onto a phosphor member (scintillator), and then, each of the plurality of detecting elements converts the intensity of visible light, generated corresponding to the amount of radial rays irradiated, to an amount of electric charge to be stored in a capacitor, so as to acquire the radiographic image by reading out the electric charges stored in the capacitors. The abovementioned FPD has such immediacy that the concerned radiographic image can be obtained just after the radiographic image capturing operation is completed.
Further, the recent advancement of the semiconductor manufacturing technology makes the dimensions of the FPD minimized and thinned. Still further, Tokkai 2004-180931 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication) sets forth an X-ray image capturing apparatus that is provided with such the thin-type FPD and a communication device having a wireless communication capability.
On the other hand, from the viewpoints of making the information utility convenient and speeding up various kinds of processing, the HIS (Hospital Information System) serving as such a system that totally controls patient diagnosis information and accounting information, the RIS (Radiology Information System) serving as such a system that controls the image capturing orders to be conducted in the department of radiology, etc., have been introduced into the hospital. In such the system, various kinds of radiographic image capturing apparatuses and terminal devices for controlling the capturing apparatuses, etc., are coupled to the RIS or the HIS through a network installed in the hospital, such as LAN (Local Area Network), etc.
Further, International Publication 06/109551 sets forth a radiographic image capturing system in which both a plurality of consoles (each serving as a controlling terminal device) and a plurality of FPDs (each being provided with a communication function) are coupled to the above-mentioned network installed in the hospital. According to the radiographic image capturing system set forth in International Publication 06/109551, in order to improve an efficiency of image confirming operations to be conducted by various kinds of operators, such as a radiologist, a doctor, etc., the plurality of consoles and the plurality of FPDs are correlated with each other in advance, so as to transmit the radiographic image, acquired by a specific FPD, to the console correlated to the specific FPD in advance.
Still further, International Publication 05/096944 sets forth another radiographic image capturing system in which a plurality of consoles and a plurality of FPDs, each of which is a portable cassette-type FPD (hereinafter, also referred to as a portable-type FPD) provided with a wireless communication section, are coupled to each other by using a radio repeater installed in the image capturing room. According to the radiographic image capturing system set forth in International Publication 05/096944, when the radiographing operation is implemented by employing the FPD, an ID (Identification) of the operator who conducts the radiographing operation concerned is correlated to the captured image data. Then, when operating the console that displays the radiographic image acquired by implementing the radiographing operation concerned thereon, the concerned radiographer registers the operator's ID, while the FPD transmits the image data, correlated with an operator's ID coinciding with that registered by the concerned radiographer, to the console concerned. By employing the above-mentioned method, even when the radiographer repeats the radiographing operations while moving from one to another console among the plurality of consoles, it becomes possible for the radiographer to confirm the radiographic images, represented by the image data acquired by the radiographing operations, at a specific console which is currently used by the radiographer concerned, resulting in improvement of the efficiency of the radiographing operations.
As for the radiographic image capturing system set forth in Patent Document 2 or Patent Document 3, it is necessary to correlate the FPD with the console installed in the radiographing room in advance when the radiographing operation is actually implemented.
Other than the purpose of improving the efficiency of image confirming operation, the reason why the FPD is correlated with the console lays on such purposes that, by storing radiographing sensitivity information in advance into the console correlated, the image correcting operation is speedily performed and the operation in regard to the timing of image capturing operation is synchronized with the X-ray generating apparatus to be used for the radiographing operation concerned.
However, sometimes, the portable-type FPD provided with the wireless communication section is used by moving it between plural radiographing rooms. For instance, in case that a FPD, singly installed in a certain radiographing room, has malfunctioned and another FPD is moved to the concerned radiographing room from another radiographing room so as to backup the malfunctioned FPD, due to such the emergency reason, it would be requested that the portable-type FPD is employed for the radiographing operation in the concerned radiographing room in which the portable-type FPD is not equipped in the normal situation, or the like. In that case, unless the correlating relationship between the portable-type FPD and the radiographing room is made to be changed, since the portable-type FPD is still correlated with the console installed in the radiographing room serving as the departure site, instead of the concerned radiographing room serving as the destination site, the radiographing subject (patient) resides in the wrong radiographing room, which is different from the correct radiographing room correlated to the console to be used for radiographing the subject. Accordingly, if the radiographing operation is conducted in the abovementioned state, the operation for acquiring the radiographing image cannot be actually achieved, and merely a wasted X-ray exposure would occur in vain.
In order to change the correlating relationship from that with the console installed in the radiographing room serving as the departure site to that with the other console installed in the other radiographing room serving as the destination site, the following method could be employed.
(1) The console information in both the console of the departure site and the other console of the destination site are established by using one of the both consoles through the wireless communication path.
(2) The portable-type FPD is equipped with a separate setting section for the setting change use, so as to use the separate setting section for the above purpose. For instance, a device for connecting the portable-type FPD with the console through wire communication, a wireless communication device other than that to be used for controlling operations, etc. can be cited as the abovementioned separate setting section. In addition, it is necessary for the operator to manually move the radiographing sensitivity information to be utilized for the image correction processing to the other console of the destination site through the network or by using a certain kind of recording medium. However, even in any one of the abovementioned methods, the operator should once conduct establishing operations by employing a certain kind of method through manual operations, and accordingly, there has been a problem that such the establishing operations are cumbersome for the operator.