Optical: systems and elements – Compound lens system – Microscope
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-05
2001-05-22
Henry, Jon (Department: 2872)
Optical: systems and elements
Compound lens system
Microscope
C359S377000, C359S368000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06236502
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation microscope which magnifies an object in order to perform a desired operation while observing the magnified object. More specifically, the invention relates to a microscope for surgery which is used to observe stereoscopically an observation object such as an eye of a patient, in ophthalmic, encephalic, or other medical diagnosis, treatment and surgery, or to an industrial stereoscopic microscope for processing and checking electronic parts, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, binocular stereoscopic microscopes with which a surgery region such as an eye of a patient can be stereoscopically observed as an observation object are widely used in ophthalmic surgery, encephalic surgery, etc. In such a binocular stereoscopic microscope for surgery, a branch observation optical system is provided. The branch observation optical system is branched from a main observation optical system that is used by an operator to observe an observation object, with the intention of making it possible for an assistant to assist the operator or for an intern to study the ongoing surgery.
In a case where, for instance, an operator gives a treatment in ophthalmic surgery on a certain region of a patient's eye using tweezers, a scalpel, etc., the operator pays attention not only to the region treated but also to other regions, and keeps watching over an undesirable sign of the patient's eye during the treatment. Namely, the apparent field of a microscope for surgery sometimes reaches up to 50 degrees, and though the subject region of the treatment may occupy merely a part of that field of view at some point in the treatment, the operator gives attention to the entire field of view of the microscope, not the partial field of view thereof.
Meanwhile, the operator may give instructions to assistants regarding to treatment or operation of the surgery, or explanations to observers regarding to a method or procedure of the surgery. Such instructions or explanations often cover regions other than the region to be treated.
Unfortunately, there are considerable difficulties for the operator in wording a region that is the subject of the operator's instructions or explanations. For that reason, with a conventional microscope for surgery, the operator has to stop the surgery for a while to indicate the region concerned using tweezers or the like, which involves inconvenience of hindering quick completion of the surgery.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and therefore an object of the present invention is to provide an operation microscope with which an assistant, or the like, can readily know which position in the field of view of the microscope the operator gazes at, to thereby lighten the burden of the operator and quickly complete the operation such as the surgery.
In order to solve the above problems, there is provided an operation microscope according to the present invention including: a main observation optical system for observing an observation object; a branch observation optical system branched from the main observation optical system; visual line direction detecting means for detecting a direction of a visual line of an observer who observes the observation object with the main observation optical system; calculating means for calculating a position of the visual line of the observer with respect to the observation object, in accordance with the direction of the visual line detected by the visual line direction detecting means; and display means arranged in the branch observation optical system, for displaying position information representing the position of the visual line calculated by the calculating means.
In order to solve the above problems, there is provided an operation microscope according to the present invention including: a main observation optical system for observing an observation object; a branch observation optical system branched from the main observation optical system; projecting means for projecting a target light flux to eyes of an observer who observes the observation object with the main observation optical system; position detecting means for detecting a position of a Purkinje image formed by reflected light from the eyes of the observer, the reflected light being the reflection of the target light flux projected by the projecting means; visual line direction detecting means for detecting a direction of a visual line of the observer in accordance with the position of the Purkinje image detected by the position detecting means; calculating means for calculating a position of the visual line of the observer with respect to the observation object, in accordance with the direction of the visual line detected by the visual line direction detecting means; and display means arranged in the branch observation optical system, for displaying position information representing the position of the visual line calculated by the calculating means.
In order to solve the above problems, there is provided an operation microscope according to the present invention including: a main observation optical system for observing an observation object; a branch observation optical system branched from the main observation optical system; projecting means for projecting a target light flux to eyes of an observer who observes the observation object with the main observation optical system; obtaining means for obtaining pupil images of the eyes of the observer with the target light flux projected by the projecting means; position detecting means for detecting a position of a Purkinje image formed by reflected light from the eyes of the observer, the reflected light being the reflection of the target light flux projected by the projecting means; visual line direction detecting means for detecting a direction of a visual line the observer, in accordance with the pupil images of the eyes of the observer which is obtained by the obtaining means and the position of the Purkinje image which is detected by the position detecting means; calculating means for calculating a position of the visual line of the observer with respect to the observation object, in accordance with the direction of the visual line detected by the visual line direction detecting means; and display means arranged in the branch observation optical system, for displaying position information representing the position of the visual line calculated by the calculating means.
In the above operation microscope, the position information displayed in the display means can be observed with the branch observation optical system.
In order to solve the above problems, there is provided an operation microscope according to the present invention including: an observation optical system for observing an observation object; an imaging optical system branched from the observation optical system, for obtaining an observation image of the observation object; visual line direction detecting means for detecting a direction of a visual line of an observer who observes the observation object with the observation optical system; calculating means for calculating a position of the visual line of the observer with respect to the observation object, in accordance with the direction of the visual line detected by the visual line direction detecting means; and display means for displaying position information representing the position of the visual line calculated by the calculating means on the observation image obtained by the imaging optical system.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5579772 (1996-12-01), Kinukawa et al.
patent: 5889577 (1999-03-01), Kohayakawa et al.
Armstrong, Westerman Hattori, McLeland, and Naughton, LLP
Henry Jon
Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon
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