Endoscope apparatus
AssigneeOlympus Optical Co., Ltd.
InventorHaruko Igarashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An endoscope apparatus having an insertion part which includes an object optical system in order to conduct measurements or stereoscopic-vision observations, using the object optical system with a moderate parallax, a moderate size of an image can be provided without making an endoscope thick in diameter.
Claims20
An endoscope apparatus having an insertion part which includes an object optical system to conduct measurements or stereoscopic-vision observations, said object optical system comprising:
- a pair of negative lenses arranged in parallel and almost in contact with each other;
- a first pair of positive-lenses arranged in parallel and almost in contact with each other;
- a brightness diaphragm having a pair of apertures;
- a second pair of positive-lenses arranged in parallel and almost in contact with each other;
- and
- an image-pick-up device having an effective image-pick-up range of 2 to 2.5 mm or less for forming an object image, said elements being arranged in order from an object side, wherein
- a pair of optical axes, defined by said pair of negative lenses and said first pair of positive-lenses said respective optical axis pass through the respective centers of said pair of apertures of said brightness diaphragm,
- wherein the centers of circumferences of said second pair of positive-lenses are arranged eccentrically with respect to said pair of optical axes by shifting symmetrically and by the same amount said second pair of positive-lenses in a direction towards each other's center wherein the distance between said centers is less than the sum of radii of said circumferences,
- wherein said pair of optical axes become eccentric in the direction towards each other's by said second pair of positive-lenses and said pair of optical axes reach said image-pick-up device,
- wherein each of said positive-lenses of said second pair has a cutout portion at their respective circumference, where each of said lenses abuts with each other at said cut out portion, such that the distance between the centers of circumferences of said positive-lenses of said second pair is less than the sum of radii thereof, and
- said object optical system satisfies the following conditional formulas:
- 0.2≦x/d≦0.9 (1)
- 0.03L<d<2L (2)
- wherein x represents an optic-axial distance of said pair of optical axes of said image-pick-up device,
- d represents the optic-axial distance of said pair of optical axes of said object side, and
- L represents the best observation distance of said object optical system,
- so that x/d expresses the grade of the eccentricity of said second pair of positive-lenses, and the comparison of L with d expresses the grade of a parallax required for measurements or stereoscopic-vision observations.
An endoscope apparatus which includes an object optical system to conduct measurements or stereoscopic-vision observations, said object optical system comprising:
- a pair of negative lenses;
- a first pair of positive-lenses;
- a brightness diaphragm;
- a second pair of positive-lenses;
- and
- an image-pick-up device for forming an object image, said elements being arranged in order from an object side, wherein
- a pair of optical axes are defined by said pair of negative lenses, said first pair of positive-lenses and said brightness diaphragm, and
- wherein the centers of said second pair of positive-lenses are arranged eccentrically with respect to said pair of optical axes in a direction in which said centers come closer to each other.
An endoscope apparatus equipped with an object optical system to conduct measurements or stereoscopic-vision observations, said object optical system comprising:
- a brightness diaphragm;
- a pair of positive-lenses;
- and
- an image-pick-up device for forming an object image, said elements being arranged in order from an object side, wherein
- an optic-axially eccentric device is arranged adjacent said brightness diaphragm, and
- wherein the optic-axial distance on the object side determined by said optic-axially eccentric device is eccentric with respect to the optic-axial distance determined by a pair of positive-lenses on an image side from said brightness diaphragm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.