Portable radiographic imaging apparatus and system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9492137-B2
Application number	US-201414472561-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2014
Priority date	Sep 17, 2013
Publication date	Nov 15, 2016
Grant date	Nov 15, 2016

Abstract

A portable X-ray imaging apparatus includes an electronic cassette for imaging of an X-ray image and transmitting the X-ray image wirelessly. An image receiving unit communicates with the electronic cassette and receives the X-ray image wirelessly. A passive monitoring device receives ambient electromagnetic waves to measure communication environment by passive monitoring. An active monitoring device performs data communication between the electronic cassette and the image receiving unit to measure the communication environment by active monitoring. Furthermore, an evaluation device detects a cause of a communication failure by considering a result of the passive monitoring and a result of the active monitoring. The evaluation device detects that the cause of the communication failure is a blocking object blocking radio waves or a relative position between the electronic cassette and the image receiving unit according to the results of the passive and active monitoring.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus comprising:
an electronic cassette for imaging of a radiation image and transmitting said radiation image wirelessly;
an image receiving unit for communicating with said electronic cassette and receiving said radiation image wirelessly;
a passive monitoring device for receiving ambient electromagnetic waves to measure communication environment by passive monitoring;
an active monitoring device for performing data communication between said electronic cassette and said image receiving unit to measure said communication environment by active monitoring.

2. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 1 , further comprising an evaluation device for detecting a cause of a communication failure by considering a result of said passive monitoring and a result of said active monitoring.

3. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein said result of said passive monitoring includes at least one of intensity of a particular frequency of said electromagnetic waves, spectral intensity of frequency distribution of said intensity of said electromagnetic waves, and a time profile of changes in said intensity or said spectral intensity with time.

4. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein said result of said active monitoring includes a transmission speed.

5. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 2 , further comprising a controller for outputting environment information of said communication environment to a display device, said environment information including at least one of said result of said passive monitoring, said result of said active monitoring, and said detected cause of said communication failure detected by said evaluation device.

6. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 5 , wherein said result of said passive monitoring includes at least one of channel information of a radio communication channel of radio waves used by a radio communication device being present locally, and noise information of electromagnetic noise created by a device being present locally.

7. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 5 , wherein said evaluation device further checks enablement of wireless transmission of said radiation image according to at least one of said result of said passive monitoring, said result of said active monitoring and said cause of said communication failure;
said controller further outputs information as to said enablement of said wireless transmission of said radiation image to said display device.

8. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein said passive monitoring is performed before performing said active monitoring.

9. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 8 , wherein said evaluation device checks whether said active monitoring should be performed according to said result of said passive monitoring.

10. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein said evaluation device checks whether a medical instrument with possibility of receiving influence of radio waves is present locally according to a waveform of electromagnetic noise, and judges unavailability of said active monitoring assuming that said medical instrument is found to be present.

11. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein said evaluation device detects that said cause of said communication failure is a blocking object blocking radio waves or a relative position between said electronic cassette and said image receiving unit according to said results of said passive and active monitoring.

12. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 11 , wherein said evaluation device recognizes that said cause of said communication failure is said blocking object or said relative position according to an estimated transmission speed estimated according to said result of said passive monitoring, a measured transmission speed in said result of said active monitoring, and noise information of electromagnetic noise in said result of said passive monitoring.

13. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 11 , further comprising a positioning aid device for outputting information for adjusting said relative position.

14. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 13 , wherein said information is a speed history of detected changes in a transmission speed by causing said active monitoring device to perform said active monitoring repeatedly while said relative position is adjusted.

15. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein said image receiving unit includes a position sensor, and said positioning aid device produces said speed history by combining said transmission speed and position information from said position sensor.

16. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 14 , wherein said positioning aid device detects an optimized position where said transmission speed is highest according to said speed history;
further comprising a controller for outputting information of said optimized position to a display device.

17. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 5 , wherein said image receiving unit has said passive monitoring device, said active monitoring device and said display device.

18. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 2 , further comprising a condition setting unit for changing a communication setting of radio communication by considering at least one of said result of said passive monitoring and said result of said active monitoring.

19. A portable radiographic imaging apparatus as defined in claim 18 , wherein said condition setting unit determines said communication setting for transmitting said radiation image by considering said result of said active monitoring of plural events different in said communication setting.

20. A portable radiographic imaging system having a portable radiation source apparatus and a portable radiographic imaging apparatus, comprising:
said portable radiographic imaging apparatus including:
an electronic cassette for imaging of a radiation image and transmitting said radiation image wirelessly;
an image receiving unit for communicating with said electronic cassette and receiving said radiation image wirelessly;
a passive monitoring device for receiving ambient electromagnetic waves to measure communication environment by passive monitoring;
an active monitoring device for performing data communication between said electronic cassette and said image receiving unit to measure said communication environment by active monitoring.

Assignees

• Fujifilm Corp

Inventors

• Iwamoto Takahiro
• Tsubota Keiji
• Nishino Naoyuki
• Kudo Yoshimitsu

Classifications

• A61B6/4283

  characterised by a detector unit being housed in a cassette · CPC title

• A61B6/563 Primary

  involving image data transmission via a network · CPC title

• A61B6/4233

  using matrix detectors · CPC title

• A61B6/4405

  the apparatus being movable or portable, e.g. handheld or mounted on a trolley · CPC title