Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Nobuo Yamashita

Kimihiko Nishioka

Miwako Maeda

Susumu Takahashi

Toshihiro Imai

Katsuyuki Kanehira

Akira Hasegawa

Takeaki Nakamura

Akira Suzuki

Hiroki Hibino

Tsutomu Yamamoto

Shinichiro Hattori

Hiroshi Matsui

Takashi Tsukaya

Koichi Matsui

Akihiro Namba

Tatsuya Yamaguchi

Akira Yokota

Toshimasa Akagi

Kazumasa Matsuo

Masanao Murata

Iwao Kanamori

Kazunari Kobayashi

Minoru Okabe

Yoshihito Shimizu

Kenji Hirooka

Ken-ichi Nakahashi

Kenichi Kikuchi

Yoshikazu Tojo

Tomoaki Sato

Takashi Mizusaki

Kunio Ohno

Yoshisada Hayamizu

Koji Kanbara

Masayoshi Naito

Masaru Iino

Yoshitaka Nagai

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

An image forming optical system designed in simple composition and capable of providing images of high quality, said optical system comprising a prism system including at least a pair of a first prism arranged on the optical axis between an objective lens and an incident end face of an image guide or solid-state image sensor and having an emerging face inclined relative to the optical axis and a second prism having an incident surface inclined relative to the optical axis, and so adapted as to vibrate at least one of said first and second prisms in the direction of the optical axis by a piezoelectric element type of actuator. Said image forming optical system is so composed as to be suited for use with fiber scopes, electronic fiber scopes or display scopes.

Apparatus for improving image formed by imaging optical system

A field of view direction changing optical system comprising an incident face intersecting at right angles with the optical axis of the light from the observation field of view forming an angle .theta. with respect to an optical axis of an image transmitting optical system, a first reflecting face forming an angle .theta./2 with respect to said incident face and a prism having a second reflecting face parallel to said incident face or coincident with it, in order to prevent the occurrence of astigmatism and to enable that the positioning adjustment at assemblage can be done easily. On the second reflecting face a parallel plane glass is secured and on said parallel plane glass a plano-concave lens aligned to said optical axis forming an angle .theta. with respect to the optical axis of the image transmitting optical axis may be secured.

Field view direction changing optical system

An illumination optical system for an endoscope in which, by arranging a cylindrical reflection member between a light guide and a lens system, a distribution curve of luminous intensity is improved with the effective utilization of illumination light and yet the formation of the image of the light guide end face on the object surface is obviated, thereby enabling attainment of a uniform illumination over the object surface.

Illumination optical system for an endoscope

An endoscope illuminating optical system comprising a light guide in which the distribution of optical fibers on the exit end surface is uneven, a positive lens system placed in front of the exit end of the light guide and a single fiber placed between the positive lens system and exit end to improve the light distribution or to eliminate the uneven illumination produced by the parallax of the illuminating optical system and observing optical system.

Illuminating optical system for endoscopes

An apparatus for picking-up an image of an object including a solid state image sensor having a number of image sensing elements and an objective lens for projecting the image of the object onto the image sensor is disclosed. In order to remove a curvature of field of the objective lens, the image sensor is curved into a spherical shape having a radius of curvature equal to that of the curvature of field. The solid state image sensor may be curved in any desired shape to correct various aberrations of the objective lens.

Image pick-up apparatus

A viewing-direction changing optical system comprising an optical fiber bundle, a reflecting means arranged to deflect the optical axis to a direction different from the axis of the optical fiber bundle, and lenses arranged in front and rear (the object side and image side) of the reflecting means, the viewing-direction changing optical system being arranged to change the viewing direction by sliding the reflecting means in the direction of optical axis.

Viewing-direction changing optical system

An illumination optical system for use in an endoscope comprises a glass pane disposed in front of a source of illuminating light and which is centrally defined with a reflecting surface which is inclined with respect to the optical axis of the source. Light passing through the source in alignment with the optical axis thereof illuminates a near object while light passing through the source offset from its optical axis illuminates a far object.

Endoscope and illumination optical system therefor

A focusing method for use in an optical system and a focusing apparatus used therefor employ an illumination unit. The method comprises effecting photometry of light reflected from an object which is to be observed and which is illuminated only by light from the illumination unit, and causing a movement of the optical system to focus it, the magnitude of the movement being determined by the amount of light measured by the photometric operation.

Focusing method and apparatus for use in an optical system

An objective lens system for endoscopes comprising a first lens group having positive refractive power, a second lens group having negative refractive power and a third lens group having positive refractive power, and being so adapted as to permit focusing and at the same time observation at a magnification level different from ordinary magnification level matched with distance to an object to be observed.

Focusing objective lens system for endoscopes

An optical system for connecting a first light guide to a second light guide in such a manner that the rays emerging from said first light guide are incident on said second light guide. Said optical system is so adapted as to assure favorable angular distribution characteristic and plane luminous intensity distribution by arranging the emerging end surface of said first light guide in the vicinity of the front focal point of said optical system and the end surface of incidence of said second light guide in the vicinity of the rear focal point of said optical system respectively.

Connecting optical system for light guides

A photo eyepiece for endoscopes comprising at least two cemented lens components, i.e., a first cemented lens component and a second cemented lens component, having a large numerical aperture and, in spite of this merit, corrected very favorably in characteristics of spherical aberration, lateral chromatic aberration and curvature of field.

Photo eyepiece for endoscopes

A method for focusing an objective lens of endoscope comprising dividing said objective lens into a front lens group and a rear lens group, arranging an optical fiber bundle so as to have its end surface on the rear side of said rear lens group and focusing said objective lens by displacing said rear lens group together with said optical fiber bundle. This method makes it possible to afford high magnification level for the objective lens even when it is brought into focus with an object located at a short distance.

Method for focusing an objective lens of endoscope

An optical system of viewing-direction changing attachment for endoscopes comprising a first reflecting means having a reflecting surface for changing the observing direction and a second reflecting means having a reflecting surface for changing the illuminating direction and arranged so that the reflecting surface for changing the illuminating direction comes to a fore position compared with the reflecting surface for changing the observing direction in order to enable to illuminate and observe a wide area being free from ghost image and flare.

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Hachioji, Japan

Nobuo Yamashita