JP3060348B2 - Endoscope - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope, and more particularly to an endoscope provided with an optical fiber bundle as an image guide, and a solid-state imaging device connected to an end face of an eyepiece of the optical fiber bundle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an endoscope provided with an optical fiber bundle as an image guide, an end face of the optical fiber bundle is arranged on an eyepiece formed in a hand operation section of the endoscope. An image appearing on the end face of the unit is observed from an eyepiece, and a TV camera having a built-in solid-state imaging device (CCD) is attached to the eyepiece to monitor the image on a TV monitor screen.

A mask having a mark indicating the upward direction of an image appearing on the end face of the eyepiece is arranged on the end face of the eyepiece of the optical fiber bundle. The TV camera is attached to the eyepiece such that the arrangement direction of the pixels of the CCD coincides with a vertical reference line passing through the mark indicating the upward direction of the mask member and a horizontal reference line orthogonal to the vertical reference line. Can be

[0004]

However, in the conventional endoscope, one of the arrangement directions of the optical fibers of the optical fiber bundle is aligned with one of the CCD pixel arrangement directions. In addition, since the TV camera is attached to the eyepiece of the operation unit at hand, there is a disadvantage that moire fringes are easily generated.

In order to solve such a problem, an optical low-pass filter is attached between the end face of the eyepiece of the optical fiber bundle and the CCD to remove the frequency of the moire fringes. There is a disadvantage that a filter mounting space is required and the cost is high. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to provide an endoscope that prevents the occurrence of moiré fringes without using an optical low-pass filter.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a large number of optical fibers are stacked in a bale stack on a reference plane and bundled, so that the end face of the optical fiber bundle is A reference direction parallel to the reference plane, and 60
An optical fiber bundle in which an array pattern having directionality in three directions of the ° direction and the 120 ° direction is formed as an image guide, and an image appearing on the end surface of the eyepiece portion of the optical fiber bundle and on the end surface of the eyepiece portion A mask member having a mark indicating the upward direction is arranged, and the arrangement direction of the pixels of the solid-state imaging device is arranged on a vertical reference line passing through the mark indicating the upward direction of the mask member and a horizontal reference line orthogonal to the vertical reference line. An endoscope in which the solid-state imaging device is attached to the eyepiece so that the optical fiber bundle coincides with the optical fiber bundle, wherein one of the arrangement directions of the optical fiber bundle is the upward direction of the mask member. And a horizontal reference line orthogonal to the vertical reference line and a vertical reference line passing through the mark indicating the mark is inclined at an angle of 15 ° to the plus side or the minus side. And

[0007]

[0008]

According to the present invention, one of the arrangement directions of the optical fiber bundle does not overlap with one of the vertical reference line and the horizontal reference line passing through the mark indicating the upward direction of the mask member. Moire fringes do not occur. When a solid-state imaging device is connected to the end face side of the eyepiece section of the optical fiber bundle, one of the array directions of the optical fiber bundle is one of the vertical reference line and the horizontal reference line of the mask member. By setting an angle of 15 ° to the plus side or minus side with respect to one reference line,
Since the distance between the pitches at which the end face of the optical fiber coincides with the pixel of the solid-state imaging device is the longest, moire fringes are hardly generated.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of an endoscope according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an endoscope 10 according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the endoscope 10 has a hand operation section 12, and an eyepiece end face of an optical fiber bundle 16 serving as an image guide is arranged on an eyepiece section 14 formed in the hand operation section 12. I have.

The optical fiber bundle 16 is moved from the eyepiece 14 through the endoscope insertion section 18 and the bending section 20 to the distal end hard section 2.
2, and an objective lens (not shown) is provided on the objective side end surface. The objective lens can form an image incident from an observation window 24 formed in the distal end hard portion 22 on the objective-side end surface of the optical fiber bundle 16, and the formed image is formed by an optical fiber The light is transmitted to the eyepiece end face of the optical fiber bundle 16 by the bundle 16 and appears as an image on the eyepiece end face. The image appearing on the end surface of the eyepiece is the eyepiece 1
An image is formed on a surface of a CCD 28 built in a CCDTV camera 26 detachably attached to the camera 4. The image formed on the CCD 28 is photoelectrically converted by the CCD 28, and the photoelectrically converted signal is subjected to signal processing in the processor 30 and displayed on the monitor 32.

The optical fiber bundle 16 is, as shown in FIG.
A large number of optical fibers 34, 34,... Are piled up on a reference plane P in a bale-stacked manner and bound, and the end face of the eyepiece section has a reference direction A1 (0 °) parallel to the reference plane P, and this reference direction. An array pattern having directionality in three directions of A1 and 60 ° A2 and 120 ° A3 is formed with respect to A1. The optical fiber bundle 16 is converged on a pipe-shaped base (not shown). As shown in FIG. 3, an annular mask 38 having a projection 36 indicating the top position of the optical fiber bundle 16 is fixed to the end face of the base, and the optical fiber bundle 16 has a reference direction A1. A vertical reference line B1 passing through the projecting piece 36 of the mask 38 and a horizontal reference line B2 orthogonal to the vertical reference line B1 with respect to one reference line (the horizontal reference line B2 in this embodiment) on the plus side. At an angle of 15 °.

On the other hand, the array of the pixels 40 of the CCD 28 has a reference direction C1 parallel to the reference plane P as shown in FIG.
(0 °), it has directionality in two directions C2 orthogonal to the reference direction C1. The CCD TV camera 2
Reference numeral 6 denotes an eyepiece 14 such that the arrangement directions C1 and C2 of the CCD 28 coincide with the directions B2 and B1 of the mask 38.
Is fixed.

The positional relationship of the CCD 28 to the end face of the eyepiece of the optical fiber bundle 16 will be described below with reference to FIG. As described above, the CCD TV camera 26
Means that the arrangement directions C1 and C2 of the CCD 28
2. Since the optical fibers 34 are fixed to the eyepiece 14 so as to coincide with the B1 direction, the arrangement direction A1 of the optical fibers 34, 34.
This means that the CD 28 is inclined by 15 ° to the plus side with respect to the arrangement direction C1.

As a result, the distance between the pitches at which the end faces of the optical fibers 34, 34... And the pixels 40, 40... Substantially coincide with each other becomes the longest, so that moire fringes hardly occur. Therefore, generation of moiré fringes can be prevented without using an optical low-pass filter. In this embodiment, “optical fiber 3
The reference direction A1 of 4, 34... Is inclined by 15 ° to the plus side with respect to the horizontal reference direction B2 of the mask 38. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be inclined by 15 ° to the minus side.

The arrangement direction A of the optical fibers 34, 34...
2 or A3 may be inclined by 15 ° to the plus side or 15 ° to the minus side with respect to one of the vertical reference direction B1 or the horizontal reference direction B2 of the mask 38. Further, the present invention is not limited to a CCD, but is effective when combined with a CCD monitor having a lattice pattern such as a shadow mask of a TV monitor.

[0016]

As described above, according to the endoscope according to the present invention, one of the arrangement directions of the optical fiber bundle is
Prevents the generation of moiré fringes without using an optical low-pass filter because it is tilted relatively to one of the vertical reference line and the horizontal reference line passing through the mark indicating the upward direction of the mask member so as not to overlap. it can.

When a solid-state image pickup device is connected to the end face of the eyepiece section of the optical fiber bundle, one of the arrangement directions of the optical fiber bundle is defined by a vertical reference line and a horizontal reference line of the mask member. Of the optical fiber and the pixel of the solid-state image sensor becomes the longest by inclining by 15 ° to the plus side or the minus side with respect to one of the reference lines. Difficult to do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an endoscope according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an arrangement pattern of optical fibers.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing an attachment angle of an optical fiber bundle with respect to a mask.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an array pattern of CCD pixels.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Endoscope 12 ... Hand operation part 14 ... Eyepiece part 16 ... Optical fiber bundle 26 ... CCDTV camera 28 ... CCD 30 ... Processor 32 ... Monitor device A1, A2, A3 ... Arrangement direction of optical fiber C1, C2 ... Pixel Arrangement direction of 34 ... Optical fiber 40 ... Pixel

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61B 1/00-1/32 G02B 23/24

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optical fiber bundle comprising: a plurality of optical fibers stacked in a bale stack on a reference plane and bound; a reference direction parallel to the reference plane;
An optical fiber bundle on which an array pattern having directionality in three directions of the ° direction and the 120 ° direction is formed as an image guide, and an image appearing on the end surface of the eyepiece portion of the optical fiber bundle A mask member having a mark indicating the upward direction of the mask member is disposed , and lead passing through the mark indicating the upward direction of the mask member.
A solid reference line and a horizontal reference line perpendicular to the vertical reference line
Solid-state imaging so that the pixel array direction of the image sensor matches.
An endoscope in which an image element is attached to an eyepiece, wherein the optical fiber bundle has a vertical direction in which one of the array directions of the optical fiber bundle passes through a mark indicating the upward direction of the mask member. An endoscope, wherein the endoscope is arranged to be inclined at an angle of 15 ° to a plus side or a minus side with respect to one of a reference line and a horizontal reference line orthogonal to the vertical reference line.