Capsule endoscope

A capsule endoscope, comprising:

• illumination means that includes a light emitting element for illuminating an object;
• imaging means that includes an objective optical system for imaging the object;
• and
• a transparent cover having a center of curvature, said transparent cover covering the illumination means and the imaging means;
• wherein
• the illumination means includes an illumination diverging means having an exit pupil, and a light emitting element, and
• the center of the exit pupil of the illumination diverging means is arranged to substantially coincide with the center of curvature of the transparent cover.

A capsule endoscope, comprising:

• illumination means for illuminating an object;
• imaging means for imaging the object;
• and
• a transparent cover having a center of curvature, said transparent cover covering the illumination means and the imaging means;
• wherein
• the imaging means includes a plurality of objective optical systems and an image detecting element;
• the illumination means include illumination diverging means having exit pupils and light emitting elements;
• one exit pupil of the illumination diverging means is arranged so as to substantially coincide with the center of curvature of the transparent cover, and the remaining exit pupils of the illumination diverging means are positioned relative to the image detecting element, when viewing the capsule endoscope from the object side, so areas that are symmetrically positioned about the optical axes of the objective optical systems from the exit pupils of the remaining illumination diverging means overlap areas of the image detecting element but do not overlap any area of the image detecting element that is used for picture image detection.

A capsule endoscope, comprising:

• illumination means for illuminating an object;
• imaging means for imaging the object;
• and
• a transparent cover having a center of curvature, said transparent cover covering the illumination means and the imaging means;
• wherein
• the imaging means includes a plurality of objective optical systems and a plurality of image detecting elements;
• the illumination means include illumination diverging means having exit pupils, and light emitting elements;
• the exit pupil of one illumination diverging means is arranged to substantially coincide with the center of curvature of the transparent cover, and the exit pupils of the remaining illumination diverging means are positioned relative to the image detecting elements, when viewing the capsule endoscope from the object side, so that areas that are symmetrically positioned about the optical axes of the objective optical systems from the exit pupils of the remaining illumination diverging means overlap areas of the image detecting elements but do not overlap any area of the image detecting elements that is used for picture image detection.

A capsule endoscope, comprising:

• illumination means that includes a light emitting element for illuminating an object;
• imaging means for imaging the object;
• and
• a transparent cover which covers the illumination means and the imaging means;
• wherein
• the imaging means includes an objective optical system and an image detecting element,
• the illumination means is positioned relative to the image detecting element, when viewing the capsule endoscope from the object side, so that an area that is symmetrically positioned about the optical axis of the objective optical system from a light emitting area of the illumination means overlaps an area of the image detecting element but does not overlap any area of the image detecting element that is used for picture image detection.