Portable color imager borescope

A portable steerable borescope or endoscope of the type having, a viewing head, an insertion tube with a cable bendable steering section proximally of the viewing head, at least one pair of steering cables, a fiber optic object illumination channel connected to said viewing head, an image sensor in said viewing head, and an object image channel connected to said viewing head, which comprises;

• a pair of servo motors each operatively connected to a pair of steering cables extending to said bendable section;
• steering control circuit means for controlling the rotation of said servo motors;
• lamp means positioned to illuminate the object to be viewed via said fiber optic illumination channel,
• video processor means for transforming the object image from said image channel into format for video display,
• lamp dimmer means connected to said lamp and said video processor for controlling the light output of said lamp in accordance with the video signal from said image sensor to provide optimum video image brightness,
• DC-to-DC converter means for changing twelve volts DC to all the voltages required to operate the borescope;
• twelve volt DC battery means connected to said DC-to-DC converter means;
• all of the foregoing means and apparatus being contained in a single control module box;
• separate video display means operatively connected to said control module box;
• and
• separate actuator means for said steering control circuit operatively connected to said control module by a flexible cable.

In a portable borescope of the type having an insertion tube with a cable steerable section adjacent the viewing head, the combination comprising:

• a first housing member having mounted therein:
• a plurality of servo motors operatively connected to said cable steerable section;
• a servo operating circuit control board for driving said servo motors,
• lamp means positioned to transmit through a fiber optic cable light to illuminate the object to be viewed;
• video processor means for transforming object images received from the viewing head into standard NTSC format;
• lamp dimmer means connected to said lamp and said video processor means for controlling the light output of said lamp in accordance with the video signal from said viewing head to provide optimum video image brightness;
• power supply means including a battery pack and means for selectively converting commercial alternating current power to direct current power for charging the battery pack and/or operating the borescope/endoscope;
• a second housing member having mounted therein a standard five inch color video monitor;
• an actuator for providing electrical signals to said control board to cause said servo motors to move said steerable section proportional to the position of said actuator;
• and
• an insertion tube having a viewing head including an image sensor, a plurality of steering cables attached to said steerable section, a fiber optic illuminating cable, and a video cable, all operatively connected to said viewing head;
• so that a compact, fully portable borescope for inspection of objects in inaccessible cavities at remote sites is provided.

In a portable borescope of the type having an insertion tube with a cable steerable section adjacent the viewing head, the combination comprising:

• a first housing member having mounted therein:
• a plurality of servo motors operatively connected to said cable steerable section;
• a servo operating circuit control board for driving said servo motors,
• lamp means positioned to transmit through a fiber optic cable light to illuminate the object to be viewed;
• video processor means for transforming object images received from the viewing head into standard NTSC format;
• lamp dimmer means connected to said lamp and said video processor means for controlling the light output of said lamp to provide optimum video image brightness;
• power supply means including a battery pack and means for selectively converting commercial alternating current power to direct current power for charging the battery pack and/or operating the borescope/endoscope;
• a second housing member having mounted therein a standard five inch color video monitor;
• an actuator for providing electrical signals to said control board to cause said servo motors to move said steerable section proportional to the position of said actuator;
• and
• an insertion tube having a full color multi-pixel chip mounted in a socket receptacle positioned in the distal end of said viewing head, a plurality of steering cables attached to said steering section, a fiber optic illuminating cable, a video cable, all operatively connected to said viewing head;
• so that a compact, fully portable borescope for inspection of objects in inaccessible cavities at remote sites is provided.