Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.p.

Masahiro Ohno

Fumio Uchino

Hitoshi Tateoka

Tatsuo Nagasaki

Hiroki Hibino

Yoshihiro Yamazaki

Hitoshi Mizuno

Akihiro Horii

Kenji Yoshino

Sakae Takehana

Gregory V Hofer

David Kay Campbell

Katsuichi Imaizumi

Yoshinao Oaki

Takefumi Uesugi

Mamoru Kaneko

Isami Hirao

Toshimasa Kawai

Akihiro Namba

Takeshi Ozawa

Hitoshi Ueno

Jun Hiroya

Kouichi Karaki

Eiji Yasuda

Hiroyuki Sangu

Hidemichi Aoki

Michelle Ogg

Outaro Ando

Hironobu Takizawa

Hideyuki Adachi

Tomonao Kawashima

Koichi Karaki

Atsushi Okawa

Kiyoshi Fujii

Yuzo Nakamura

Kenji Kishi

Soji Yamamoto

Kanae Nakasato

Yasushi Satoh

Jun-ichi Ishibashi

Ichiro Odachi

A focus lens and a zoom lens group having a first zoom lens and a second zoom lens are controlled separately from one another in an internal-focus camera. The positions of the focus lens and the second zoom lens in the zoom lens group are tracked, and are controlled to approach no closer to one another than a minimum safe distance to avert collisions between the focus lens and the second zoom lens.

Zoom and focus control method and system

A light scanning device has a tip structure which includes a light scanning part connected to a light source, and which is insertable into a body cavity and is formed so as to be water-tight. A controlling part controls the light scan through the tip structure, and the tip structure and the controlling part are also connected to each other in a water-tight manner by a slender tube through which a plurality of electrical cables pass. An electric connector is fixed with the proximal end portion of the tube in a water-tight manner, and is electrically connectable so as to be water-tight with and removable from this controlling part.

Light scanning devices of a water-tight structure to be inserted into a body cavity to obtain optical information on inside of a biological tissue

An ultrasonic transducer for producing an ultrasonic tomographic image is included in a distal part of an ultrasonic endoscope to be inserted into an object of observation. The ultrasonic transducer is rotated. Echoes of ultrasonic waves produced by the ultrasonic transducer are detected in order to produce an ultrasonic tomographic image that is a two-dimensional image. A magnetic sensor for detecting a position is included in the distal part. A magnetic field generated by a magnetic field generator locked near the object of observation is sensed. The position and orientation of the distal part are detected, whereby information of a position and orientation relevant to the ultrasonic tomographic image is obtained. Based on the information of the position and orientation, a plurality of produced ultrasonic tomographic images is synthesized in order to produce an ultrasonic image that is a three-dimensional image. The periphery of the magnetic sensor in the distal part is made of a non-conductive material. An eddy current developing near the magnetic sensor is therefore limited. Consequently, the precision in position detection performed by the magnetic sensor improves. The precision in position relevant to each of the ultrasonic tomographic images constituting the ultrasonic image therefore improves. Thus, an ultrasonic image with high positional precision can be produced.

Ultrasonic diagnosis system in which periphery of magnetic sensor included in distal part of ultrasonic endoscope is made of non-conductive material

A low coherence beam emitted by a low coherence light source is split into two portions. One portion is transmitted from the outward end of a first single mode fiber via a detachable connector to a beam scanning probe, and then to a biological tissue; and the other is transmitted from an optical coupler placed midway along the light path via a second single mode fiber to a light path modifier. The light path modifier includes a galvanometer mirror to modify the light path length in accordance with a scan range, and a uniaxial stage to adjust the light path length to absorb the variation in lengths of different beam scanning probes. The light path is adjusted by the uniaxial stage such that the beam interference is detected for the scan range, to ensure stable acquisition of tomographic images.

Optical imaging apparatus which radiates a low coherence light beam onto

A high-frequency signal is applied from an oscillator via a circulator to a piezoelectric transducer. An ultrasonic wave generated by the piezoelectric transducer is directed to a material through an acoustic lens. The ultrasonic wave transmitted through the material is conducted to a phase-conjugator having a nonlinear piezoelectric element consisting of a crystal of LiNbO.sub.3. A phase-conjugate wave generated by the generating section is transmitted through the material again and received by the piezoelectric transducer. The received signal is supplied to a receiver circuit via the circulator. The receiver circuit gates the received signal in accordance with a time of return of the phase-conjugate wave so as to extract a signal representing the interior of the material. The material is scanned two-dimensionally by a scanning control device so as to display a two-dimensional ultrasonic image on a television monitor.

Ultrasonic imaging apparatus without phase distortion

Ultrasonic microscope

A coherent laser light flux is projected into a cell made of transparent quartz and light scattered from particles suspended in an antigen-antibody reaction liquid contained in the cell is detected by a photomultiplier by means of a collimator. An output electrical signal from the photomultiplier is sampled at different time instances and samplings are supplied to a fast Fourier transformer to derive a plurality of power spectrum desnities of fluctuation in intensity of the scattered light. A plurality of power spectrum densities are averaged to generate a mean power spectrum density. An amount of antigen contained in the reaction liquid is measured in accordance with the mean power spectrum density.

Method and apparatus for measuring immunological reaction with the aid

A coherent laser light flux is projected into a cell made of transparent quartz and light scattered from particles suspended in an antigen-antibody reaction liquid contained in the cell is detected by a photomultiplier by means of a collimator. An output electrical signal from the photomultiplier is sampled at different time instances and samplings are supplied to a fast Fourier transformer to derive a plurality of power spectrum densities of fluctuation in intensity of the scattered light. A plurality of power spectrum densities are averaged to generate a mean power spectrum density. An amount of antigen contained in the reaction liquid is measured in accordance with the mean power spectrum density.

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Kunitachi, Japan

Masahiro Ohno