Endoscope system and low visibility determining method

1. An endoscope system comprising:

an image pickup section, provided in an endoscope, which performs image pickup;

a determining section that determines whether or not a specific observation object exists inside an image pickup region of the image pickup section;

a recognizing section that determines whether or not the specific observation object can be recognized as an image from the picked-up image in the image pickup region picked up by the image pickup section;

a low visibility determination output section that determines, when the determining section determines that the specific observation object exists inside the image pickup region and the recognizing section cannot recognize the specific observation object as an image, that the image pickup section is in a low visibility condition and outputs a low visibility determination result; and

an obstacle estimation section that estimates an obstacle or a type of obstacle which causes the low visibility according to the low visibility determination result.

2. The endoscope system according to claim 1 , wherein the specific observation object is a distal end portion of a treatment instrument, and

when part of the distal end portion of the treatment instrument cannot be recognized as an image, the low visibility determination output section determines that the image pickup section is in a low visibility condition.

3. The endoscope system according to claim 2 , further comprising a control section that controls operation of the treatment instrument, wherein the control section performs control so as to stop or limit the operation of the treatment instrument according to an obstacle or a type of obstacle estimated by the obstacle estimation section.

4. The endoscope system according to claim 3 , wherein the specific observation object is a distal end portion of an active treatment instrument, a plurality of joints of which are rotated by a drive section, and

the control section that controls the operation of the treatment instrument further comprises a second control section that controls operation of the drive section in the active treatment instrument.

5. The endoscope system according to claim 4 , wherein when the active treatment instrument performs a treatment using energy supplied from an energy supply apparatus, the control section performs control so as to stop or limit operation of the drive section in the active treatment instrument and also stop operation of energy supply by the energy supply apparatus according to an obstacle or a type of obstacle estimated by the obstacle estimation section.

6. The endoscope system according to claim 5 , wherein the control section changes contents of control on the active treatment instrument between when the obstacle is estimated to be smoke or mist and when the obstacle is estimated to be other than smoke or mist.

7. The endoscope system according to claim 5 , wherein when the obstacle is estimated to be smoke or mist, the control section controls the active treatment instrument so as to slow the response speed of the operation of the drive section of driving in response to an instruction operation and controls the active treatment instrument, when the obstacle is estimated to be other than smoke or mist, so as to stop the operation of driving of the drive section.

8. The endoscope system according to claim 5 , wherein when the obstacle is estimated to be smoke or mist, the control section controls the active treatment instrument so as to slow the response speed of the operation of driving a treatment section provided at a distal end of the active treatment instrument for performing a treatment and controls, when the obstacle is estimated to be other than smoke or mist, the active treatment instrument so as to stop the operation of the treatment section and retract the treatment section to accommodate the treatment section inside a treatment section accommodation section.

9. The endoscope system according to claim 1 , further comprising an announcing section that announces the low visibility determination result by the low visibility determination output section or information on an obstacle or a type of obstacle estimated by the obstacle estimation section.

10. An operation method of a low visibility determining system, comprising:

a display step of displaying an image of a site to be observed in a body cavity picked up by an image pickup section as an endoscope image;

a treatment instrument position acquiring step of a position determining section acquiring a position of a distal end portion of a treatment instrument for conducting a treatment of the site to be observed;

a position determining step of the position determining section determining whether or not the distal end portion of the treatment instrument is located inside an image pickup region as a region of the picked-up image;

a recognizing step of an image recognizing section conducting image recognition as to whether or not the distal end portion of the treatment instrument can be recognized as an image of an interior of the image pickup region through image processing on the picked-up image;

a low visibility determination outputting step of a low visibility determining section determining low visibility when the distal end portion of the treatment instrument is determined in the position determining step to be inside the image pickup region and the recognition result in the recognizing step shows that the distal end side of the treatment instrument cannot be recognized as an image inside the image pickup region and outputting a low visibility determination result; and

an obstacle estimating step of an obstacle estimation section estimating, when the low visibility determination result is outputted in the low visibility determination outputting step, an obstacle or a type of obstacle that causes the low visibility.