PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect the temperature of a distal end part without separately arranging a temperature sensor in an endoscope insertion portion.SOLUTION: An imaging device (54) having a solid state imaging element (58) is incorporated in the distal end part of the insertion portion of an electronic endoscope (12), and an oscillator (82) for generating a clock signal to operate the solid state imaging element is incorporated in the distal end part. A processor (14) for subjecting an imaging signal output from the imaging device (54) to signal processing includes: a clock extraction means (86) for extracting the clock signal from the imaging signal and a data storage means (94) for storing correlation data representing relationship between the temperature of the oscillator (82) and an oscillation frequency. The temperature at the distal end part of the electronic endoscope (12) is estimated, based on a value expressing the frequency of the clock signal extracted from the imaging signal and the correlation data, through the use of temperature dependency of the oscillation frequency.COPYRIGHT: (C)2013,JPO&INPIT【課題】内視鏡挿入部に別途温度センサを配置することなく、先端部分の温度を検知可能とする。【解決手段】電子内視鏡(12)の挿入部の先端部に、固体撮像素子(58)を有する撮像装置(54)が内蔵されるとともに、当該先端部に固体撮像素子を動作させるクロック信号を発生させるための発振器(82)が内蔵される。撮像装置(54)から出力される撮像信号に信号処理を施すプロセッサ装置(14)は、撮像信号からクロック信号を抽出するクロック抽出手段(86)と、発振器(82)の温度と発振周波数の関係を示す相関データを記憶するデータ格納手段(94)を備え、撮像信号から抽出されるクロック信号の周波数を表す値と前記相関データに基づいて、発振周波数の温度依存性を利用して、電子内視鏡(12)の先端部の温度を推定する。【選択図】図4
