Television – Special applications – With endoscope
Reexamination Certificate
1995-08-16
2001-02-06
Tung, Bryan (Department: 2713)
Television
Special applications
With endoscope
C600S172000, C600S173000, C600S175000, C600S176000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06184923
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus having a distal end optical adapter connected to an endoscope with a built-in solid state imaging device.
2. Related Art Statement
In recent years, endoscopes which are capable of observing internal organs in the body cavity and performing several kinds of treatment using treatment tools inserted into treatment tool channels as the need arises by inserting an elongated insertion tube into the body cavity have been extensively used. These endoscopes are used not only in medical treatment but also applied to industrial use for observing and inspecting tubes in boilers, machines and chemical plant, or an internal engine.
In the endoscopes which are used as mentioned above, an electronic endoscope is included. In the electronic endoscope, a solid state imaging device, such as a charge coupled device (written as CCD in the following) is disposed at the distal end of an insertion tube, and an endoscope image formed on the imaging device is displayed on a monitor screen for observation.
Some of the electronic endoscopes for medical use are stereoscopic endoscopes which form an image acquired by each of two objective optical systems on a CCD built in an endoscope insertion tube so as to be capable of observing the image stereoscopically. The stereoscopic endoscopes are indicated in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 64-26813/1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,650.
Further, in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. H1-197716/1989, two objective optical systems having different magnification are disposed and an image obtained by each objective optical system is formed on a CCD corresponding to each optical system, so that an endoscope for, what is called as telephotographic/wide which can observe two images including an ordinary observation image and a magnified image is shown.
On the other hand, in an electronic endoscope for industrial use, a distal end optical adapter type has been known in the art. In the distal end optical adapter, various kinds of objective optical systems for various uses have been arranged.
Further, in endoscopes used in the industrial field, some endoscope has a zooming function provided in an objective optical system and a function being capable of manually switching between a direct sight and a side sight, what is called as a pan viewing function has been highly required.
When a mechanism for performing a pan viewing function is provided at the distal end of the endoscope for industrial use, not only the endoscope distal end diameter becomes thick but also the structure is complicated. That has become a factor of increasing expenses.
The endoscopes which can perform stereoscopic vision observation shown in Patent Application Laid Open No. 64-26813/1989 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,650, and the endoscopes which can perform telephotographic/wide operation shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. H1-197716/1989 are exclusively used for stereoscopic vision observation or telephotographic/wide operation.
In addition, because the endoscopes form images acquired by two objective optical systems ordinarily use a pair of optical systems for stereoscopic vision observation, the two optical systems have the same f-number (brightness/stop value) and send the common illumination light to both optical systems. In other words, it was not necessary to adjust the quantity of illumination light for each optical system from a light source through a light guide. However, as mentioned above, if an observation image obtained by each objective optical system is formed on the CCD corresponding to each objective optical system and the common quantity of light illuminates two objective optical systems having different magnification in an endoscope performing telephotographic/wide operation by using the common quantity of light, an image having proper brightness for each optical system cannot be obtained, so that it was necessary to adjust and supply the quantity of illumination light being appropriate for each optical system.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope apparatus in which stereoscopic vision observation or two kinds of image observation, such as telephotographic/wide observation or a function including pan viewing is easily formed in addition to ordinary observation in an endoscope having a solid state imaging device.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope apparatus in which observation can be carried out in appropriate brightness when an image is observed using a function of stereoscopic vision or two kinds of telephotographic/wide images or pan viewing in an endoscope having a solid state imaging device.
In short, the endoscope apparatus of this invention comprises an endoscope with a built-in solid state imaging device at the distal end of the insertion tube, and a distal end optical adapter detachably connected to a distal end portion of the insertion tube of the endoscope, wherein at least one objective optical system is provided in the distal end optical adapter and an optical image formed on a solid state imaging device through the distal end optical adapter is displayed on a TV monitor through a control device.
The other characteristics and advantages of this invention will be sufficiently apparent in the following explanation.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4588294 (1986-05-01), Siegmund
patent: 4706653 (1987-11-01), Yamamoto
patent: 4856495 (1989-08-01), Tohjoh et al.
patent: 4860732 (1989-08-01), Hasegawa et al.
patent: 4873572 (1989-10-01), Miyazaki et al.
patent: 5122650 (1992-06-01), McKinley
patent: 5379756 (1995-01-01), Pileski et al.
patent: 5547457 (1996-08-01), Tsuyuki et al.
patent: 5603687 (1997-02-01), Hori et al.
patent: 64-26813 (1989-01-01), None
patent: 1-197716 (1989-08-01), None
Armstrong, Westerman Hattori, McLeland & Naughton
Olympus Optical Co,. Ltd.
Tung Bryan
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