Importance

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Abstract

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for the automatic identification of components of medical apparatus systems, in particular, components of endoscopy systems. There is provided a unit which is separate from at least one of the components (30a, 30b) to be identified, this unit includes a write-read head. This unit may for example be one of the system components such as a camera head (18) in a video endoscope system. Each component to be identified includes a writable and readable data carrier which stores data signals indicating component parameters. Contents of the data carrier can be read in by transmission of the data to the write-read head from the separate unit and may here be registered and where appropriate, activate control and/or regulation procedures. According to the invention, the employed data transmission system is a touch-free system, with which the energy for reading out or registering the data into the data carrier of the components is transmitted by induction from the write-read head of the separate unit to the component. The separate component further contains a modulation-demodulation device with which the signals to be transmitted to the component are modulated and the data signals received by the component are demodulated. A video camera (15a) connected to the camera head (18) may, on account of the data read out by the components (30a, 30b), be automatically adapted to their specifications.

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First Claim