Endoscope system with scanning function
AssigneeHoya Corporation
InventorsYuichi SHIBASAKI, Kohei IKETANI
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Abstract
An endoscope system has an optical fiber configured to transmit illumination light emitted from a light source to the tip portion of a scope; a scanner configured to spirally scan a target area with illumination light by vibrating the tip portion of said optical fiber; and an image generator configured to generate image data from image-pixel signals obtained from the light reflected from the target area. Then, the scanner scans the illumination light in a circular motion midway through a spiral scanning procedure.
Claims20
An endoscope system comprising:
- an optical fiber configured to send illumination light emitted from a light source to the tip portion of a scope;
- a scanner configured to spirally scan a target area with the illumination light by vibrating the tip portion of said optical fiber;
- and
- an image generator configured Lo generate image data from image-pixel signals that are obtained by light reflected from the target area, said scanner circularly scanning the illumination light midway through a spiral scan.
An apparatus for obtaining an image associated with an endoscope system by scanning, comprising:
- a scanner configured to scan a target area with illumination light;
- and
- a scan direction controller configured to control a scan direction, said scan direction controller being capable of carrying out a spiral scan and a circular scan, said scan direction controller interleaving the circular scan between the spiral scan.
A method for obtaining an image associated. with an endoscope system by scanning, comprising:
- scanning a target area with illumination light;
- and
- carrying out a spiral scan and a circular scan while interleaving the circular scan between the spiral scan.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.