Olympus Corporation

Manabu Yajima

Akihiko Mochida

Susumu Hashimoto

Satoshi Tanaka

Tomoya Takahashi

Yusuke Yabe

Koji Omori

Masaaki Watanabe

Yasuo Komatsu

Takeaki Nakamura

Shinji Yamashita

Katsuyuki Saito

Kotaro Ogasawara

Katsuichi Imaizumi

Kuniaki Kami

Tomoki Iwasaki

Hideki Tashiro

Makoto Tsunakawa

Seiichi Hosoda

Wataru Ohno

Shuhei Iizuka

Noboru Kusamura

Masahide Yamaki

Kanichi Matsumoto

Masaki Terakubo

Hiroshi Ibe

Koichi Niida

A light source device for endoscope includes a rotational body configured to rotate with a rotational axis as a center; a fluorescent body arranged in a predetermined area of the rotational body and configured to generate fluorescence by excitation light being radiated; an illuminating portion capable of selectively radiating excitation light of a first quantity and excitation light of a second quantity which is larger than the first quantity to a fluorescent body; and a control portion configured to switch between a first state of radiating the excitation light of the first quantity to the fluorescent body arranged in a first area and a second state of radiating the excitation light of the second quantity to the fluorescent body arranged in a second area.

Light source device for endoscope and endoscope system

A light source device for endoscope includes: an irradiation portion capable of radiating excitation light; a rotating body provided on an optical axis of the excitation light and configured to rotate with a rotating shaft as a center; a phosphor arranged in an irradiation area of the excitation light, and configured to generate fluorescence by being irradiated with the excitation light; a light quantity control portion configured to control irradiation intensity or irradiation time of the excitation light; and a rotation control portion configured to rotate the rotating body at a predetermined speed when the excitation light is radiated with a first irradiation intensity or time and rotate the rotating body faster than the predetermined speed when reducing the irradiation intensity or the irradiation time of the excitation light is reduced in the irradiation intensity or time vis-a-vis the first ones.

An endoscope system comprising an endoscope which incorporates an imaging element together with an element for determining the type of the imaging element; a light source apparatus, which includes a DMD in a light path from a light source lamp, for determining incidence or non-incidence of the illuminating light from the light source lamp on a mirror; a CPU which determines the type of imaging element based on the information provided by the type determining element and detects a time required by the imaging element for charge reading based on the determination result; and a DMD control circuit which controls the DMD at a charge reading timing of the imaging element corresponding to the charge reading time detected by the CPU, the endoscope system making it possible to extend the exposure time to a maximum regardless of the type of the endoscope, by controlling the light shielding time of illuminating light in accordance with the type of the imaging element.

Light source device for an endoscope using a DMD

An endoscope system has a lamp that emits illumination light with which an object is illuminated, and a power supply that supplies power with which the lamp is lit. Furthermore, the endoscope system includes a condition detecting unit and a notifying unit. The condition detecting unit is provided to or near the lamp and detects a predetermined condition relevant to the lamp. The notifying unit notifies an operator of the state of the lamp according to a result of detection performed by the condition detecting unit. The condition detecting unit is a temperature detector or a power detector . The temperature detector detects whether the temperature at or near the lamp is equal to or larger than a predetermined value. The power detector detects whether current or voltage supplied or applied from the power supply to the lamp is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.

Endoscope device

An object is imaged continuously during a first exposure time and a second exposure time shorter than the first exposure time. Weights, one of which decreases monotonously and the other of which increases monotonously, are applied to first and second resultant image signals under the condition that the sum of the weights is 1. The first and second image signals that have been weighted are added up, thus producing a synthetic picture signal. When a luminance level is low, the ratio of the first image signal, which has been produced during the longer exposure time, to the second image signal is increased. This results in an image demonstrating a high signal-to-noise ratio. When the luminance level is high, the ratio of the second image signal, which has been produced during the shorter exposure time, to the first image signal is increased. This results in a synthetic image that proves a wide dynamic range, depicts a smoothly varying brightness level, and exhibits a characteristic of being seen as almost natural. Moreover, the first and second image signals are produced to resemble those produced during mutually different exposure times by controlling an amount of light incident on an imaging device or by varying an amount of illumination light.

Imaging apparatus offering dynamic range that is expandable by weighting two image signals produced during different exposure times with two coefficients whose sum is 1 and adding them up

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Hino, Japan

Manabu Yajima