The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 23, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 30, 2001
Masahiro Toida, Kaisei-machi, JP;
Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd., Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Abstract
An endoscope apparatus that has an OCT function and can efficiently obtain an optical tomographic image is provided. An image of an area within a body cavity is displayed on a monitor, and an operator uses a pen-type input to specify a point thereon. An aiming-light is projected onto the body cavity and displayed on said monitor as a bright point, and a coated tube of an OCT probe is slid and rotated by a scanning controller so as to align the aiming-light with the point. A scanning-area setting means sets a ring shaped scanning area when the aiming-light and point are aligned. The scanning area is scanned with a signal-light, and an optical tomographic image is obtained and displayed on a monitor. An optical tomographic image can be efficiently and expediently obtained without the need to manually direct the irradiation position of the signal-light to a desired scanning area.