Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Tomoaki Sato

Katsunori Sakiyama

Akira Hasegawa

Hisao Yabe

Takeaki Nakamura

Teruo Eino

Susumu Takahashi

Kimihiko Nishioka

Akira Suzuki

Hiroki Hibino

Yasuhiro Ueda

Akinobu Uchikubo

Tsutomu Yamamoto

Shinichiro Hattori

Takashi Tsukaya

Hideyuki Adachi

Atsushi Miyazaki

Nobuo Yamashita

Koichi Matsui

Masaaki Nakazawa

Tatsuya Yamaguchi

Koji Takamura

Akira Yokota

Hisao Ogiu

Iwao Kanamori

Masanao Murata

Kazunari Kobayashi

Hirofumi Miyanaga

Minoru Okabe

Yoshihito Shimizu

Kenji Hirooka

Akibumi Ishikawa

Kenichi Kikuchi

Yoshikazu Tojo

Katsuyuki Kanehira

Toshiyuki Takara

Koji Kanbara

Yoshikazu Tohjoh

Mitsugu Nagayoshi

Masayoshi Naito

Nobuaki Uenishi

An intra-tube traveling apparatus includes a moving unit to which an endoscope is held and which is self-driven to travel in a pipe path, and a movement control section for controlling movement of the moving unit. The moving unit includes an elastic actuator which is extended/contracted in the radial direction and axial directions of the pipe path upon reception of the pressurized fluid, balloons attached to the front and rear ends of the elastic actuator. Each of the balloons is radially expanded/deformed upon reception of the pressurized fluid therein to be locked to the inner surface of the pipe path. The movement control section includes a pressurized fluid supply unit, a switching control section, a stop signal output switch for outputting a stop signal for stopping a movement operation of the moving unit, and a unit fixing portion for supplying the pressurized fluid to the balloons upon reception of the stop signal from the stop signal output switch to expand/deform the lock portions, thereby fixing the moving unit to the inner surface of the pipe path.

Intra-tube traveling apparatus

This endoscope apparatus is provided with an elongate flexible insertable part; a winding unit with a supporting structure having a winding member connected with the insertable part at the base end and capable of winding up and housing the insertable part; an illuminating device for emitting an illuminating light for the endoscope; and an observing device for producing an image of an object to be observed. An external apparatus forming one or both of the illuminating device and observing device is provided separately from the winding member. A connecting means is extended axially out of the side of the winding member and connected to the external apparatus. The endoscope apparatus also includes a driving circuit for the imaging apparatus and a signal processing circuit for processing a picture image signal output from the imaging apparatus to be a video signal. At least the driving circuit is located in the winding member and rotates with this winding member; and the signal processing circuit may also be located in the winding member.

Winding type endoscope apparatus

This endoscope apparatus is provided with an elongate flexible insertable part; a winding unit with a supporting structure having a winding member connected with the insertable part at the base end for winding up and housing the insertable part; an illuminating device for emitting an illuminating light for the endoscope; and an observing device for producing an image of an object to be observed. An external apparatus forming one or both of the illuminating device and observing device is provided separately from the winding member. A flexible connecting means is extended axially out of the side of the winding member and operatively connects the insertable part to the external apparatus.

This solid state imaging apparatus is provided within the tip part of an insertable part of an endoscope and is provided with an image forming optical system for forming images. This image forming optical system forms an optical image on the imaging surface of a solid state imaging chip provided in the rear of this image forming optical system. This solid state imaging chip is affixed to a circuit substrate extending substantially at right angles with the imaging surface and electrically connected with the solid state imaging chip. This circuit substrate is connected with a signal cable transmitting input and output signals of the solid state imaging chip.

Solid state imaging apparatus

This electronic endoscope has an insertable part having an observing window on the side of a tip part extended forward of the insertable part. The solid state imaging device is to receive an entering light from the above mentioned observing window and is arranged so as to intersect substantially at right angles with the axial direction of the above mentioned insertable part. Contents are arranged on the opposite observing window side of this solid state imaging device. This solid state imaging device is provided with wire bonding parts on the side different from the side on which the above mentioned contents are arranged.

Electronic endoscope with solid state imaging device

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 first optical adapter is to be detachably mounted on the distal end of an endoscope having an observation optical system and an illumination optical system, in which an aperture diaphragm which has been disposed at a given position within the observation optical system of the endoscope in the past, is disposed instead within an observaiton optical system of the optical adapter such that its optical axis is in agreement with that of the observation optical system for the endoscope. The optical adapter is selected from a set of adapters having different F numbers or the optical adapter is provided with a set of different F number diaphragms which are interchangeable. This enables the F number of the observation optical system of the endoscope apparatus to be changed by merely selecting the appropriate front optical adapter or diaphragm, depending upon brightness of the observation optical system, depth of field and brightness of an object being observed, as well as observation range and view angle of the observation optical system and the like, in order to obtain a clear observation image with optimum brightness.

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Higashiyamato, Japan

Tomoaki Sato