JP2821192B2 - Hardcover book rounding method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus provided with an optical endoscope to which an external television camera is detachably mounted.

[Related Art and Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In recent years, an electronic endoscope using a solid-state imaging device such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) instead of an image guide for transmitting an optical image ( An electronic endoscope or electronic scope is abbreviated), and an endoscope image captured on a TV monitor can be displayed.

It is also possible to mount a TV camera having a built-in imaging means such as a solid-state imaging device on an eyepiece of an optical endoscope using an image guide formed by a conventional fiber bundle and display the image on a TV monitor. Is being done.

By the way, in the case of an endoscope apparatus in which a TV camera is mounted on the above-mentioned optical endoscope, a large number of pixels constituting each pixel of the CCD are regularly arranged in a matrix, so that the arrangement of the pixels is regular. There is a problem that moire fringes are generated due to the regularity of the arrangement of the fibers of the image guide. Furthermore, the mesh of the fiber made the image difficult to see.

The applicant has proposed Japanese Patent Application No. 62-115936. This technology includes a first driving unit that vibrates an image formed on an end face of an image guide in a direction substantially orthogonal to an optical axis, and a CC driving unit that synchronizes with the vibration by the first driving unit.
And second driving means for causing D to vibrate in the same direction.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an endoscope apparatus having a simple and inexpensive configuration and capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of moiré fringes.

[Means and Actions for Solving the Problems] An endoscope apparatus according to the present invention includes an optical endoscope having a fiber bundle type image transmitting means, and the fiber endoscope is detachably mounted on the optical endoscope. An endoscope apparatus comprising: a field-sequential external television camera that captures an optical image transmitted by a bundle-type image transmission means, wherein the line-sequential external television camera is arranged at a constant pitch. It has a displacement means for minutely displacing a subject image formed on an image sensor comprising a light receiving element group and a relative position of the image sensor in a pixel order in a direction orthogonal to an optical axis with switching of color light of a color filter. It is assumed that.

According to the present invention, the image pickup element in the field-sequential external television camera, into which the optical image is incident from the fiber bundle type image transmission means of the optical endoscope, has its position switched by the displacement means to switch the color light of the color filter. Accordingly, the light beam is minutely displaced in the direction orthogonal to the optical axis in a pixel order.

Examples Examples of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

1 to 4 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the overall configuration of an endoscope apparatus, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of vibration of a solid-state imaging device, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the vibration of the pixels constituting the solid-state imaging device, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the rotation filter.

The endoscope apparatus 1 includes an optical endoscope (abbreviated as a fiberscope) 2, an external television camera 3 (abbreviated as a TV camera) removably mounted on the fiberscope 2, and A control device 6 connected to a light source device 4 for supplying illumination light to the fiber scope 2 and the external television camera 3 and having a signal processing unit, and the control device 6
And a monitor 7 for displaying an endoscope image.

The fiber scope 2 has an elongated insertion section 8, and an operation section 9 is connected to the rear end of the insertion section 8. A universal cord 11 extends from a side portion of the operation unit 9, and a connector is provided at a rear end of the universal cord 11.
There are twelve. The connector 12 is detachably connected to the light source device 4. An eyepiece 13 is provided at the rear end of the operation unit 9 so that an endoscope image can be visually observed.

An objective lens system 14 forming an observation window and a light distribution lens system 16 forming an illumination window are provided on the distal end surface of the insertion section 8.

An incident end face of an image guide 17 formed by a fiber bundle is provided behind the objective lens system 14 and at an image forming position. The image guide 17 is inserted through the insertion section 8 and the operation section 9 so as to reach the eyepiece section 13. The exit end face of the image guide 17 has an eyepiece lens system provided in the eyepiece section 13. It is designed to face 18.

An emission end face of a light guide 19 for transmitting illumination light formed by a fiber bundle is provided behind the light distribution lens system 16, and illumination light emitted from the light guide 19 is provided by the light distribution lens system 16. Irradiated on the inspected site. The light guide 19 is inserted through the insertion portion 8, the operation portion 9, and the universal cord 11, and reaches the connector 12. The light source device 4 to which the connector 12 is detachably connected includes a light source lamp 41 for emitting illumination light,
A condenser lens 42 for condensing the illumination light emitted from the light source lamp 41 and irradiating the light on the incident end face of the light guide 19 is provided.

A signal cable 29 extends from the TV camera 3, and a signal connector 31 provided at the rear end of the signal cable 29 is detachably connected to the control device 6. The TV camera 3 is provided with an imaging lens system 21 having an optical axis coincident with the eyepiece lens system 18. Behind the imaging lens system 21 and on the optical axis of the imaging lens system 21, a solid-state imaging device (abbreviated as CCD) 22 for forming an optical image transmitted by the image guide 17 is provided. ing.
Further, between the CCD 22 and the imaging lens system 21, there is provided a rotary filter 23 for color-separating the light incident from the fiberscope 2. As shown in FIG. 4, the rotation filter 23 is a color transmission filter 24 that transmits red (R) color light, for example.
R, a color transmission filter 24G that transmits green (G) color light,
A color transmission filter 24B that transmits blue (B) color light is provided in the circumferential direction, and is rotated by a motor 26.

The CCD 22 is displaceably supported by a piezoelectric vibrator 27 as a displacing means such as a bimorph, and the output end face of the image guide 17 is connected to the CCD 22 by the piezoelectric vibrator 27.
Vibration is performed at an amplitude of, for example, one pitch (one pixel) of the arrangement pitch of the CCD 22 pixels in a direction substantially perpendicular to the optical axis connecting D22.

The CCD 22 photoelectrically converts the formed image into an electric signal, and outputs the electric signal according to an applied driving clock. This signal is amplified by the amplifier 30 and transmitted through the signal line 28. This signal line 28
Is inserted through a signal cable 29 together with a motor signal line 32 for driving the motor 26 and a signal line 33 for driving the piezoelectric vibrator 27, and the signal line 28 is connected to an external terminal 34 of the signal connector 31, 32 is the external terminal 36, signal line 33 is the external terminal 37
Are connected to each other.

A video processing circuit 38 connected to the external terminal 34 is provided in the control device 6 to which the signal connector 31 is detachably connected. The video processing circuit 38 performs signal processing on an input electric signal to convert a video signal. The data is output to the monitor 7. In addition, a motor control circuit 39 is connected to the external terminal 36 so as to control the motor 26. Also,
The motor control circuit 39 is connected to the piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit 40 and outputs a synchronization signal to the piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit 40. The piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit 40 outputs a drive signal to the piezoelectric vibrator 27 via the external terminal 37.

The operation of the endoscope apparatus 1 configured as described above will be described.

Illumination light output from the light source lamp 41 of the light source device 4 is condensed by the condenser lens 42 and radiated to the incident end face of the light guide 19. The illuminating light is transmitted through the light guide 19, emitted from the emission end face of the light guide 19, and illuminates the portion to be inspected by the light distribution lens system 16. The illuminated image of the inspected part is image-guided by the objective lens system 14.
An image is formed on the entrance end face of the lens 17, and this image is transmitted through the image guide 17, and the color transmission filters 24R, 24G, provided on the rotation filter 23 via the eyepiece lens system 18 and the imaging lens system 21.
The light passes through 24B and forms an image on the imaging surface of the CCD22. Rotary filter
The motor 23 is rotated by a motor 26, and the rotation of the motor 26 is controlled by a motor control circuit 39. Further, the CCD 22 is driven by a piezoelectric vibrator 27 as shown in FIG.
The CCD 22 is vibrated in a direction substantially orthogonal to an optical axis connecting the exit end face and the CCD 22 with an amplitude of, for example, one pitch (one pixel) of the arrangement pitch of the CCD 22 pixels. The vibration of the piezoelectric vibrator 27 is controlled by a piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit 40. A synchronization signal is input from the motor control circuit 39 to the piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit 40, and a signal synchronized with the rotation of the rotary filter 23 is output to the piezoelectric vibrator 27 to vibrate.

Using FIGS. 2 and 3, the rotary filter 23 and the CCD 2
The relationship between the two displacements will be described.

In FIG. 2, the CCD 22 vibrates between a displacement position 43 shown by a solid line and a displacement position 44 shown by an alternate long and short dash line. This amplitude is for one pixel. The rotation filter 23 rotates and sequentially transmits the R, G, and B color lights sequentially in time series. When the CCD 22 is at the displacement position 43 indicated by the solid line, as shown in FIG. R color light transmitted through is C
Light enters each pixel of CD22. When the CCD 22 is displaced from the solid line displacement position 43 to the dashed line displacement position 44, in synchronization with this,
A color transmission filter 24G is disposed on the optical axis, and the G color light transmitted through the color transmission filter 24G is incident on each pixel as shown in FIG. Again, the CCD 22 is displaced by the dash-dot line 44
From the position 43 of the solid line,
The color transmission filter 24B is disposed on the optical axis, and the B color light transmitted through the color transmission filter 24B enters each pixel as shown in FIG. One rotation of the rotary filter 23 is completed in FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c). In FIG. 3D, the second rotation of the rotary filter 23 is entered, and when the CCD 22 is displaced to the displacement position 44 indicated by a dashed line, R-color light is incident. In FIG. It looks like it has moved. Generally, since the pixel pitch is smaller than the outer diameter of one of the fibers constituting the image guide 17, the pixel is moved by one pixel, so that, for example, the pixel 46 in FIG. 3 (a) corresponds to the boundary of each fiber. If so, FIG. 4D moves to a brighter part of the light, and the regularity of the image guide 17 is relaxed.

Further, in FIG. 9E, similarly to FIG. 9B, although the G color light is incident on each pixel, since it has moved by one pixel, the regularity of the image guide 17 is relaxed as described above. . Similarly, in FIG. 6F, the image guide 17 is shifted by one pixel with respect to FIG. 6C, and the regularity of the image guide 17 for the B color light is relaxed.

By rotating the rotary filter 23 twice, the regularity of the image guide 17 is relaxed, and the occurrence of moire fringes can be prevented.

The image formed on the imaging surface of the CCD 22 under the R, G, and B color lights is photoelectrically converted, amplified by the amplifier 30, and output to the video processing circuit 38. The video process circuit 38 performs predetermined signal processing to generate a video signal and outputs the video signal to the monitor 7. Thus, an endoscope image is displayed on the monitor 7.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the CCD 22 is caused to vibrate in a direction substantially orthogonal to the optical axis of the image guide 17, so that image information incident on pixels changes, and the regularity of the image guide 17 is reduced. And the occurrence of moire fringes can be prevented.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of the endoscope apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the CCD 22 is vibrated by the piezoelectric vibrator 27, whereas the imaging lens system 21 is vibrated by the piezoelectric vibrator 27.

The piezoelectric vibrator 27 is connected to a piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit 40 provided in the control device 6, and the imaging lens system 21 is substantially orthogonal to the optical axis connecting the emission end face of the image guide 17 and the CCD 22. For example, the vibration is made at an amplitude of one pitch (one pixel) of the arrangement pitch of the pixels of the CCD 22 in the moving direction.

 Other configurations are the same as in the first embodiment.

In this embodiment, when the imaging lens system 21 is vibrated by the piezoelectric vibrator 27, the image formed on the imaging surface of the CCD 22 by the imaging lens system 21 also vibrates. This vibration is caused by the CCD2 described in the first embodiment.
This is a state similar to the state where 2 is vibrated, and the regularity of the image guide 17 is relaxed, and the occurrence of moire fringes can be prevented.

In the present embodiment, the imaging lens system 21 is minutely displaced. However, the invention is not limited thereto, and an optical path changing means such as a prism may be provided in the optical path, and this may be minutely displaced by the piezoelectric vibrator 27.

FIG. 6 relates to a third embodiment of the present invention and is an explanatory diagram of the entire configuration of the endoscope apparatus.

This embodiment uses a rotary filter from the TV camera 3 of the first embodiment.
23, and the control unit 6
23 are provided. Further, the light source device 4 is also built in the control device 6.

The TV camera 51 removably mounted on the eyepiece 13 of the fiberscope 2 of the present embodiment is provided with an imaging lens system 21 so as to coincide with the optical axis of the eyepiece system 18. A CCD 22 is provided behind the imaging lens system 21 and at an imaging position. The CCD 22 has a piezoelectric vibrator 27 as in the first embodiment.
The piezoelectric vibrator 27
As a result, the light is oscillated at an amplitude of, for example, one pitch (one pixel) of the arrangement pitch of the pixels of the CCD 22 in a direction substantially orthogonal to the optical axis connecting the emission end face of the image guide 17 and the CCD 22. The piezoelectric vibrator 27 is connected to a piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit 40 provided in the control device 6 by a signal line 33.

The control device 6 is provided with a light source section 52. The light source 52 is provided with a rotary filter 23 in addition to the configuration of the light source device 4 described in the first embodiment. The rotary filter 23 can sequentially insert the color transmission filters 24R, 24G, and 24B on the optical axis connecting the light source lamp 41 and the incident end face of the light guide 19.

 Other configurations are the same as in the first embodiment.

In this embodiment, since the rotary filter 23 is removed from the TV camera 3 mounted on the fiberscope 2 and is provided in the control device 6 instead, the TV camera 3 can be reduced in weight and size. The operability of the fiberscope 2 when the is mounted can be improved.

 Other effects are the same as those of the first embodiment.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, since the position of the image sensor is minutely displaced by the driving means in relation to the color light incident on the image sensor, the moire fringes can be formed with a simple and inexpensive configuration. Can be effectively prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1 to 4 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the overall configuration of the endoscope apparatus, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of vibration of a solid-state imaging device, FIG. Explanatory diagram,
FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the entire configuration of the endoscope apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the entire configuration of the endoscope apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. is there. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Endoscope apparatus, 2 ... Optical endoscope 3 ... External television camera 4 ... Light source apparatus, 6 ... Control apparatus 7 ... Monitor, 22 ... Solid-state image sensor 23 ... Rotation Filters 24R, 24G, 24B: color transmission filter 27: piezoelectric vibrator, 38: video process circuit 39: motor control circuit 40: piezoelectric vibrator drive circuit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Toshiaki Noguchi 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside the Olympus Optical Industrial Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masato Toda 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside the Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Nobuaki Yasukui, the inventor No. 2 43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside the Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. No. O Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroki Hibino 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo O-limpus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yoshinao Daiaki 2-43-2, Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo No. O-Limpus Optical Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Akira Murata 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo (72) Inventor: Shigeru Nakajima 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-58-168015 (JP, A) JP-A Sho 59-71025 (JP, A) JP-A-64-15713 (JP, A) JP-A-59-69039 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A61B 1/04 G02B 23/24 H04N 7/18

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optical endoscope having a fiber bundle type image transmitting means, and detachably mounted on the optical endoscope.
An endoscope apparatus comprising: a field sequential external television camera that captures an optical image transmitted by the fiber bundle type image transmission means, at a constant pitch provided in the field sequential external television camera. Displacement means for minutely displacing a subject image formed on an image sensor composed of a group of light receiving elements arranged side by side and a relative position of the image sensor in a pixel order in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis in accordance with switching of color light of a color filter. An endoscope device characterized by the above-mentioned.