Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Attribute control
Patent
1991-02-28
1992-11-24
Kostak, Victor R.
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Attribute control
358100, H04N 718
Patent
active
051667878
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an endoscope with a video device, which is arranged at the distal end of an endoscope shaft and is connected by means of a transmission system to a supply unit arranged at the proximal end thereof and is provided with a lens, which images an object field illuminated by an illumination unit onto an image recorder.
Endoscopes serve to inspect cavities for the purpose of examination and/or manipulation and have found a great number of applications in technology and medicine.
Conventional endoscope have a so called image forwarder arranged at the distal end, which "forwards" the image produced by the lens from the distal end to the proximal end, where it is examined by means of an eyepiece. In "rigid" endoscopes, the image forwarder is composed of so-called relay lens sets and in flexible endoscopes of fiber bundles.
Small-sized video image recorders, as by way of illustration CCD chips, have been available for some time. For this reason, it has often been proposed instead of using an image forwarder, to provide an image recorder in the image plane of the lens at the distal end, which is connected via a transmission system to a supply unit provided at the proximal end. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,253,447 and 4,261,344, in which an "upright" semiconductor image recorder, i.e. an image recorder standing at a 90.degree. angle to the axis of the endoscope, is arranged in the image plane of the lens provided at the distal end.
With this kind of an arrangement of the image-recorder chip, however, problems occur, particularly in medical endoscopes, as presently image-recording chips are relatively large compared to the size of medical endoscopes. The size of the image-recording chip is especially inconvenient in endoscopes which are employed not only for examination of a cavity, but also for manipulation therein, and have for this purpose leading from the distal end to the proximal end a main duct, into which, by way of illustration, scissors, tweezers, etc. can be inserted. In order that the image, recording chip, not limit too severely the lumen available for the main duct, it has been suggested, by way of illustration, in the German published patent applications 35 29 026 and 37 20 624 to arrange the image-recording chip in a "reclining" manner, i.e. parallel to the longitudinal axis of the endoscope.
Except for this special arrangement of the image-recording chip at the distal end piece of the endoscope, the hitherto proposed "video endoscopes" differ from conventional ones only in that an image conducting system (e.g.,--the relay-lens system), is replaced by an image recorder with an electric transmission system arranged thereafter. The construction of the rest of the endoscope however, (that is, the lens arrangement provided at the distal end, the arrangement of the illumination unit and of the ducts, if any, provided for the tweezers, scissors, and the like) remains practically unchanged. Such devices yield no new examination or treatment possibilities.
Furthermore, the significance of this simple replacing of an image-forwarding system with an image recorder in the state of the art is that the overall lumen of the endoscope, i.e. the required cross-section area, continues to be essentially determined by the "addition" of various lumens, which are needed for the unaltered built-in lens, the ducts for the rinse fluids, tweezers, scissors, etc.
The object of the present invention is to design an endoscope having a video device arranged at the distal end thereof in such a manner that new examination and treatment possibilities are yielded and that, in particular, the overall lumen of the endoscope is no longer determined by the addition of various, single lumens needed for the individual components, such as lens, rinse and manipulation ducts, illumination device, etc.
The present invention is based on the fundamental concept that there are substantially more design possibilities by employing an image-recorder arranged at the distal end
REFERENCES:
patent: 4253447 (1981-03-01), Moore et al.
patent: 4261344 (1981-04-01), Moore et al.
patent: 4905670 (1990-03-01), Adair
patent: 4926257 (1990-05-01), Miyazaki
Karl Storz GmbH & Co.
Kostak Victor R.
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