Information processing apparatus and capsule endoscope system

1. An information processing apparatus that performs an image process on data of a group of in-vivo images which are obtained from a capsule endoscope that captures in-vivo images of a subject via a receiver that performs a wireless communication with the capsule endoscope and sorted in an imaging time sequence, comprising:

a storage unit that stores the data of the in-vivo images and information which is associated with the data of the in-vivo images and related to a position of the capsule endoscope in an inside of the subject;

a positional information obtaining unit that obtains positional information of the capsule endoscope in capturing the in-vivo images based on the information related to the position, the positional information including a positional coordinate of the capsule endoscope;

a sequence changing unit that changes a sorting sequence of the in-vivo images along a route from an upper to a lower stream in the digestive canal based on the positional information obtained by the positional information obtaining unit; and

a correlation degree calculator that calculates a degree of correlation between predetermined in-vivo images based on the data of the in-vivo images,

wherein the sequence changing unit that changes the sorting sequence of the in-vivo images based on the positional information obtained by the positional information obtaining unit and the degree of correlation calculated by the correlation degree calculator; and

when a position coordinate of an already-checked second in-vivo image is present within a predetermined range of a position coordinate of a first in-vivo image as a check target and a degree of correlation between the first in-vivo image and the second in-vivo image is higher than a criterion, the sequence changing unit changes the sorting sequence of the first and the second in-vivo images and a third in-vivo image sorted one of right before and right after the second in-vivo image.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the degree of correlation is determined based on one of a correlation value of a fixed size block, a traveling amount of a template obtained through a block matching method, and a change rate in brightness of in-vivo images.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sequence changing unit changes the sorting sequence so that a route joining position coordinates of the first, the second, and the third in-vivo images becomes shortest.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a display unit that displays the in-vivo images based on the sorting sequence changed by the sequence changing unit.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a track calculator that calculates a track of the capsule endoscope based on the positional information and the sorting sequence of the in-vivo images changed by the sequence changing unit.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the track calculator calculates the track of the capsule endoscope based on the position-related information stored in the storage unit and corrects the track according to the sorting sequence changed by the sequence changing unit.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the sequence changing unit determines, when a part of the calculated track passes through a predetermined range of a position coordinate of a first in-vivo image as a check target, whether or not the part of the track is routed through the position coordinate of the first in-vivo image based on a second and a third in-vivo images whose respective position coordinates are at respective ends of the part of the track, and changes the sorting sequence of the first, the second, and the third in-vivo images when the part of the track is routed through the position coordinate of the first in-vivo image.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the determination is performed based on a traveling vector of a template obtained by one of a degree of similarity between the first in-vivo image and an interpolated image generated based on the second and the third in-vivo images; an optical flow; and a block matching method.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the sequence changing unit includes a specifying unit that specifies one of a group of in-vivo images whose imaging positions are close to each other and a group of in-vivo images whose imaging positions are same based on the positional information and the degree of correlation.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the display unit thins out and displays a part of the group of in-vivo images specified by the specifying unit.

11. A capsule endoscope system, comprising:

a capsule endoscope that is inserted to an inside of a subject, performs imaging, and generates in-vivo image data which shows in-vivo images of the subject;

a receiver that receives the in-vivo image data generated by the capsule endoscope via a wireless communication; and

an information processing apparatus that performs an image process on the data of a group of the in-vivo images which are obtained from the capsule endoscope via the receiver and sorted in an imaging time sequence, the information processing apparatus including

a storage unit that stores the in-vivo image data and information which is associated with the in-vivo image data and related to a position of the capsule endoscope in the inside of the subject,

a positional information obtaining unit that obtains positional information of the capsule endoscope in capturing the in-vivo images based on the information related to the position, the positional information including a positional coordinate of the capsule endoscope, and

a sequence changing unit that changes a sorting sequence of the in-vivo images along a route from an upper to a lower stream in the digestive canal based on the positional information obtained by the positional information obtaining unit;

a correlation degree calculator that calculates a degree of correlation between predetermined in-vivo images based on the data of the in-vivo images,

wherein the sequence changing unit that changes the sorting sequence of the in-vivo images based on the positional information obtained by the positional information obtaining unit and the degree of correlation calculated by the correlation degree calculator; and

when a position coordinate of an already-checked second in-vivo image is present within a predetermined range of a position coordinate of a first in-vivo image as a check target and a degree of correlation between the first in-vivo image and the second in-vivo image is higher than a criterion, the sequence changing unit changes the sorting sequence of the first and the second in-vivo images and a third in-vivo image sorted one of right before and right after the second in-vivo image.