Medical apparatus and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11986334-B2
Application number	US-202117485009-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 24, 2021
Priority date	Sep 25, 2020
Publication date	May 21, 2024
Grant date	May 21, 2024

Abstract

To provide a technique with which an operator, when talking into a microphone, can recognize whether or not his/her voice is being output from a speaker in a scan room, a CT apparatus 1 has: an operator microphone 41 installed in an operation room R 2 for receiving a voice of an operator 81 ; a patient microphone 2 installed in a scan room R 1 for receiving a voice of a patient 80 ; a speaker 50 installed in the operation room R 2 for outputting the voice of the patient 80 received by the patient microphone 2 ; a speaker 5 installed in the scan room R 1 for outputting the voice of the operator 81 received by the operator microphone 41 ; and a light-emitting section 31 for informing, in the case that the patient microphone 2 has received the voice of the operator 81 output from the speaker 5 , the operator 81 that his/her voice is being output from the speaker 5.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A medical apparatus having:
a first microphone installed in a first room for receiving a voice of an operator;
a second microphone installed in a second room for receiving a voice of a patient;
a first speaker installed in the first room for outputting the voice of the patient received by the second microphone;
a second speaker installed in the second room for outputting the voice of the operator received by the first microphone; and
a control section for controlling the informing of the operator, wherein a gantry is installed in the second room and comprises a light-emitting section for informing the operator.

2. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein the operator is visually informed that the voice of the operator is being output from the second speaker.

3. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 2 , wherein the second microphone has received the voice of the operator output from the second speaker, wherein the operator receives volume information representing a loudness of the voice of the operator.

4. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the light-emitting section has a plurality of light-emitting elements, and
the control section controls the plurality of light-emitting elements to change a number of the light-emitting elements that emit light and a number of the light-emitting elements that emit no light among the plurality of light-emitting elements depending upon the loudness of the voice of the operator.

5. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 4 , wherein when the loudness of the voice of the operator is lower than a threshold, the plurality of light-emitting elements emit no light.

6. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the gantry installed in the second room has a display section for informing the operator, and
the control section controls the display section to display the volume information representing the loudness of the voice of the operator.

7. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
a display device for informing the operator is installed in the first room, and
the control section controls the display device to display the volume information representing the loudness of the voice of the operator.

8. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 7 , comprising:
a filter block comprising:
receiving a first digital signal containing sound data representing a sound that the first microphone has received;
receiving a second digital signal containing sound data representing a sound that the second microphone has received;
generating from the second digital signal a third digital signal representing signal components corresponding to noise; and
generating a fourth digital signal containing sound data representing the voice of the operator by subtracting the third digital signal from the second digital signal, wherein the control section controls informing the operator based on the fourth digital signal.

9. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 8 , wherein the filter block comprises:
an adaptive filter for generating a fifth digital signal based on the first digital signal and the third digital signal;
a first subtracting section for outputting the third digital signal by subtracting the fifth digital signal from the second digital signal; and
a second subtracting section for generating the fourth digital signal by subtracting the third digital signal from the second digital signal.

10. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 9 , wherein the adaptive filter adjusts its filter coefficients based on the third digital signal so that a difference between the first digital signal and the fifth digital signal comes close to zero.

11. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 10 , further comprising an intercom module having the filter block.

12. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 11 , wherein:
the first microphone outputs a first analog signal representing a sound received by the first microphone, and
the intercom module comprises:
a first circuitry part for generating the first digital signal based on the first analog signal; and
a second circuitry part for generating a second analog signal to be supplied to the second speaker based on the first digital signal.

13. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 12 , wherein:
the second microphone outputs a third analog signal representing a sound received by the second microphone, and
the intercom module has a third circuitry part for generating the second digital signal based on the third analog signal.

14. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 13 , wherein the intercom module is capable of implementing a first communication mode in which the first microphone is electrically connected to the second speaker, and moreover, the second microphone is electrically disconnected from the first speaker.

15. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 14 , wherein the intercom module is capable of implementing a second communication mode in which the second microphone is electrically connected to the first speaker, and moreover, the first microphone is electrically disconnected from the second speaker.

16. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 15 , wherein the intercom module has a microphone switch for changing the communication mode between the first communication mode and second communication mode.

17. The medical apparatus as recited in claim 16 , wherein the intercom module is set to the second communication mode, and moreover, the patient utters a voice, the first speaker outputs the voice of the patient, and the control section decides that the operator utters no voice.

18. A program stored in a medical apparatus, the apparatus comprising: a first microphone installed in a first room for receiving a voice of an operator; a second microphone installed in a second room for receiving a voice of a patient; a first speaker installed in the first room for outputting the voice of the patient received by the second microphone; a second speaker installed in the second room for outputting the voice of the operator received by the first microphone; and informing, when the second microphone has received the voice of the operator output from the second speaker, informing the operator that the voice of the operator is being output from the second speaker, the program being for causing one or more processors to execute:
processing of receiving a first digital signal containing sound data representing a sound that the first microphone has received, and a second digital signal containing sound data representing a sound that the second microphone has received, generating from the second digital signal a third digital signal representing signal components corresponding to noise, and generating a fourth digital signal containing sound data representing the voice of the operator by subtracting the third digital signal from the second digital signal; and
control processing of controlling the informing of the operator based on the fourth digital signal.

Assignees

• Ge Prec Healthcare Llc

Inventors

• Ariyama Naoki
• Takaichi Yoshio

Classifications

• A61B6/468 Primary

  allowing annotation or message recording · CPC title

• A61B6/032 Primary

  Transmission computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• A61B6/461

  Displaying means of special interest · CPC title

• A61B6/5205

  involving processing of raw data to produce diagnostic data · CPC title

• A61B6/54

  Control of apparatus or devices for radiation diagnosis · CPC title