Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Masayoshi Naito

Susumu Takahashi

Akira Hasegawa

Kimihiko Nishioka

Takeaki Nakamura

Akira Suzuki

Hiroki Hibino

Tsutomu Yamamoto

Shinichiro Hattori

Takashi Tsukaya

Nobuo Yamashita

Koichi Matsui

Tatsuya Yamaguchi

Akira Yokota

Masanao Murata

Kazunari Kobayashi

Iwao Kanamori

Minoru Okabe

Kenji Hirooka

Yoshihito Shimizu

Kenichi Kikuchi

Yoshikazu Tojo

Tomoaki Sato

Katsuyuki Kanehira

Koji Kanbara

An endoscope apparatus for inspecting an object including an insertion section insertable into the object and having a distal end and a proximal end, an image guide arranged within the insertion section and having entrance and exit ends arranged at the distal and proximal ends of insertion section, respectively, an objective lens system arranged at the distal end of insertion section for forming an optical image of the object onto the entrance end of image guide, an eyepiece lens system arranged at the proximal end of insertion section for projecting the optical image transmitted through the image guide onto an observating position, a first piezo-electric bimorph arranged at the distal end of insertion section for vibrating the entrance end of image guide in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the insertion section over a given distance, a second piezo-electric element arranged at the proximal end of insertion section for vibrating the exit end of image guide in the same direction and over the same distance as those of the entrance end of image guide, so that annoying black mesh and Moire fringe are removed.

Endoscope apparatus

A device for picking up tissues comprises a flexible outer sheath, an extension wire extending through the outer sheath, a connector fixed by one end of the wire and having an outer diameter larger than the inner diameter of the outer sheath for abutting on one end of the outer sheath, a tissue picking-up section connected to said one end of the wire by the connector, a wire holding section for holding the other end of the extension wire and receiving the other end of the outer sheath, a chamber formed in the wire holding section, and a compression spring disposed in the wire holding section for resiliently urging the other end of the outer sheath toward the tissue picking-up section. The device is inserted into an endoscope disposed in a body cavity, and its outer sheath can be easily bent according to the shape of the body cavity.

Device for picking up tissues from a body cavity

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Masayoshi Naito