JPH04355712A - Binocular vision device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer the binocular view device of a microscope of a kind which obtains a normal stereoscopic image at all times for stereoscopy by pupil division. CONSTITUTION:The binocular view device is equipped with pupil dividing means 1 and 2 which is arranged behind a single objective system, but divides the pupil of said objective system into a 1st and a 2nd part, 1st and 2nd oculars 5L and 5R, an ocular lens barrel optical system which guides the pieces of luminous flux from the divided parts to the 1st and 2nd oculars 5L and 5R, and switching means 1 and 2 which switch the optical paths from the 1st and 2nd parts to the 1st and 2nd oculars.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus that performs stereoscopic viewing by pupil division using a single objective system, and particularly to a binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art For example, particularly in the fields of biology and medicine, there is a strong demand for three-dimensional understanding of objects. In order to meet this demand, a binocular stereomicroscope is being used which is constructed by arranging a pair of left and right observation optical systems in parallel. However, especially when high magnification or high resolution is required or when there is a limit to the size of the microscope, it is not possible to adopt a configuration in which two optical systems are placed side by side. Furthermore, even in cases where the observation optical path of the surgeon and the observation optical path of the assistant are orthogonal to each other in a surgical microscope, there are restrictions on the arrangement of the optical systems, and it is not possible to have a configuration in which the two optical systems are placed side by side. .

[0003] Conventionally, therefore, a microscope capable of performing stereoscopic vision has been devised, such as a single-objective binocular stereoscopic microscope disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 17722/1983. An example of the configuration of this single-objective binocular stereoscopic microscope is shown in FIG. 10, in which a light splitting prism that splits the pupil is placed behind an objective system that includes an objective lens and a relay lens in order from the object side. However, each of the light rays passing through the divided pupils enters the viewer's left and right eyes, resulting in stereoscopic vision.

In addition to the above example, a binocular microscope is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 144410/1983 as a method for performing stereoscopic vision by pupil division. FIG. 11 shows an example of the configuration of the optical system near the eyepiece section in the case where the pupils are relayed once in such a binocular microscope. The front lens 21 and the rear lens 22 of the lens, the rotation prism 23 between the front and rear lenses of the second relay lens, the first mirror 24, and the second mirror 25, and the position where the dividing line 24' that intersects the optical axis is conjugate with the entrance pupil. a second beam splitter 26 arranged so as to be near the second beam splitter 26;
Mirrors 27 and 28 that make the directions of the respective light beams divided by has been done. In the optical system of such a binocular microscope, the pupil of the objective lens relayed once by the first and second relay lenses is
Divided into left and right by mirror 24 and second mirror 25,
The light flux on the right side of the pupil enters the left eyepiece, and the light flux on the left side of the pupil enters the right eyepiece. This is to correct the 180° rotation of the pupil image due to one pupil relay, but if this is not done, the light flux on the right side of the pupil will be transferred to the right eyepiece, and the pupil image will be rotated by 180 degrees. If the left beam enters the left eyepiece, the three-dimensional effect will be reversed and the unevenness of the observed object will be reversed.

FIG. 12 shows a configuration in which the pupil is relayed twice in a binocular microscope. In this case, the light beam formed behind the rear lens 22 of the first relay lens enters the second relay lens 33 The light beam is further divided into left and right eye light beams by a light beam splitter 34 placed at a position conjugate with the entrance pupil. In addition, although the configuration in which the pupil is relayed once and the erecting prism 35 is included in the relay optical system is shown in FIG. 13, in any of these cases, the pupil is divided and the The light flux from the left side of the pupil enters the right eyepiece, and the light flux from the left side of the pupil enters the left eyepiece.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the conventional method of performing stereoscopic vision using pupil division has problems such as deterioration of resolution and reduction in brightness of the image plane, so it is necessary to replace it with a general lens barrel. In order to achieve this, it was necessary to unitize the configuration of the optical system for performing pupil division. However, with normal lens barrels, the left and right orientation of the pupils does not matter, so the structure is not unified. For this reason,
Normally, when a pupil splitting device is attached to a microscope, the unevenness of the observed object may be reversed (this situation is sometimes called inverted stereopsis), and there is a risk that correct object observation may not be possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus that can always obtain a normal stereoscopic image when performing stereoscopic viewing using pupil division.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus according to the present invention is arranged behind a single objective system, and includes a pupil dividing means for dividing the pupil of the objective system into first and second parts. , first and second eyepieces, an eyepiece tube optical system that separately guides the luminous flux from each of the divided parts to the first or second eyepiece, and the first and second eyepieces. and switching means for mutually switching the optical path from the part to the first or second eyepiece.

[0009]

[Operation] First, when the luminous flux from the divided pupils enters the pair of left and right eyepieces, the luminous flux on the right side of the divided pupil enters the left eyepiece, and the luminous flux on the left side of the divided pupil enters the left eyepiece. When the left and right eyepieces and the left and right pupils are swapped so that they enter the right eyepiece, it is called swapped splitting.On the other hand, on the other hand, the split light beam on the right side of the pupil is split into the right eyepiece. The case in which the left-hand luminous flux of the divided pupil is input to the left eyepiece is called forward division.According to the present invention, by freely switching between interchange division and forward division, the pupil can be divided as desired. Normal stereoscopic observation can always be performed without adjusting the number of relays or using an erecting prism. In particular, when switching between interchanging divisions and forward divisions, an appropriate index is provided at a suitable location within one of the divided pupils, and the observer can visually see the index with the right or left eye when the eyepiece system is removed. By doing so, it is possible to accurately judge whether or not the switching has been performed properly. Furthermore, if you want to automatically switch between swapping division and forward division, you can install a pin or the like on the installation part of the device to determine whether it is forward division or swapping division. The pupil division method can be automatically switched when the camera is attached to a microscope or the like.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of a binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. In the figure,
The configuration of the optical system from the pupil division plane to the eyepiece is shown. In the figure, 1 and 2 are pupil division mirrors, and one end of pupil division mirror 1 is located on the pupil division line (dotted chain line). It is designed to be able to rotate around an axis perpendicular to the plane of the paper. Further, the pupil splitting mirror 2 is configured such that its center can rotate around an axis in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, which is different from the above. 3L and 3R are mirrors for inputting the luminous flux divided by the pupil splitting mirrors 1 and 2 into a pair of left and right observation optical systems, 4L and 4R are imaging lenses of each optical system, and 5L and 5R are respective lenses of each optical system. This is an observation eyepiece.

Since the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus according to the present invention is constructed as described above, when sequentially dividing the pupils, the pupil dividing mirrors 1 and 2 are brought to the rotating position shown in FIG. The luminous flux divided by the pupil splitting mirror 1 (
The light beam (indicated by the dashed line) enters the left optical system, and the light beam split by the pupil splitting mirror 2 (indicated by the dashed line) enters the right optical system. On the other hand, when performing pupil exchange and division, the pupil division mirrors 1 and 2 are each rotated 90 degrees from the state shown in FIG. 2 and brought to the rotational position shown in FIG. The light flux split by mirror 1 enters the right optical system, and the light flux split by pupil splitting mirror 2 enters the left optical system.

[0012] In this way, by appropriately rotating the pupil dividing mirrors 1 and 2 and appropriately switching between exchange division and forward division, the number of pupil relays can be adjusted or the erecting prism can be adjusted. Normal stereoscopic observation can always be performed regardless of the method used.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus according to the present invention. In this second embodiment, a polarizing plate 6 (see FIG. 7), which is made by joining two semicircular polarizing plates 6a and 6b whose polarization directions are orthogonal to each other, is installed on the pupil division plane. At the rear, a left and right optical path splitting prism 7 including a light splitting element and observation direction adjustment prisms 8L and 8R are arranged, thereby dividing the optical path into a pair of left and right optical paths. Furthermore, polarizing plates 9L and 9R are installed behind the observation direction adjustment prisms 8L and 8R, but these polarizing plates 9L
, 9R are arranged to be orthogonal to each other. In the figure, orthogonal polarization directions are indicated by double-headed arrows and black circles in the polarizing plate 6 and the polarizing plates 9L and 9R. It is appropriate to use, for example, a polarizing beam splitter as the left and right optical path splitting prism 7, and if the polarization direction is adjusted so that the light passing through the polarizing plates 9L and 9R is maximized, the loss of the amount of light can be reduced. Behind the polarizing plates 9L, 9R, imaging lenses 4L, 4R and observation eyepieces 5L, 5R are installed to form observation images of the pair of left and right optical systems. In the above case, the polarizing plate 6 is rotatably mounted around the optical axis.

According to the second embodiment, the left and right sides of the entrance pupil are divided into two by the polarizing plate 6 so that the polarization directions are perpendicular to each other, and the polarization directions are separated by the polarizing plates 9L and 9R. The optical path can be divided in substantially the same way as the optical path is divided. That is, when performing sequential division as shown in FIG.
The polarizing plate 6 is rotated so that the polarization directions match between the polarizing plate 9R and the polarizing plate 9R, and the light beam polarized by the polarizing plate 6a enters the left optical system, while the light beam polarized by the polarizing plate 6b enters the left optical system. The resulting light flux enters the optical system on the right. or,
When performing replacement and division, the polarizing plate 6 is rotated 180 degrees from the state shown in FIG. 5, and as shown in FIG. This is done by matching the polarization directions between the two.

FIGS. 8 and 9 show a third embodiment of a binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus according to the present invention. In this third embodiment, the optical path is divided into a pair of left and right observation optical paths by the optical path splitting prism 7 and prisms 10L and 10R for adjusting the left and right observation directions of the divided light beam. At the rear of each of the prisms 10L and 10R, diaphragm means 11L and 11 are configured to be able to move symmetrically with respect to the optical axis of each optical system in conjunction with each other at a position near the pupil.
Further, imaging lenses 4L, 4R and observation eyepieces 5L, 5R are installed behind the aperture means 11L, 11R.

According to the third embodiment, when performing sequential division,
Both the diaphragm means 11L and 11R are moved to the outside of the optical axis of the optical system in which they are arranged as shown in FIG.
By symmetrically decentering the left and right observation systems, stereoscopic observation becomes possible based on the parallax generated in the left and right optical systems. on the other hand,
In the case of exchanging and dividing, as shown in FIG. 9, both the diaphragm means 11L and 11R are moved inward of the optical axis of the optical system in which they are arranged, thereby eliminating the problem caused by parallax. Stereoscopic observation can be performed.

In the third embodiment, the aperture means 11L
, 11R are variable diaphragms and their eccentricity can be freely changed within the range of the pupil diameter, thereby making it possible to appropriately change the stereoscopic effect and depth during stereoscopic viewing. In this case, the axis passing through the center of the apertures of the aperture means 11L and 11R and the center of the field of view can be regarded as the optical axis.
For example, by decreasing the diameter of the aperture and increasing the amount of eccentricity of the aperture, the three-dimensional effect can be made more pronounced. On the other hand, if, on the contrary, an objective lens with a large numerical aperture (NA) is used to perform stereoscopic observation as shown in FIG. However, in such a case, it is possible to make image fusion easier by reducing the amount of eccentricity of the aperture. Incidentally, by making the circular apertures eccentric in the aperture means 11L and 11R, the difference in resolution due to the difference in direction that may occur due to the asymmetrical pupil shape in the first or second embodiment is eliminated. It is possible to eliminate such inconveniences.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, in this type of optical device that performs stereoscopic vision by pupil division, it is possible to adjust the number of pupil relays between the pupil division planes or to use an erecting prism. Normal stereoscopic observation can be easily and reliably performed regardless of the method used. As a result, even if the pupil dividing section is made into a unit, there is no need to prepare two types of devices for that purpose, and furthermore, there is an advantage that there is no need to replace the device of the present invention when installing a relay system. be.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a main part of an optical system according to a first embodiment of a binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the main part of an optical system in the case of performing sequential division of pupils in the first embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the main part of an optical system when performing pupil exchange and division in the first embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the main parts of an optical system according to a second embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the main parts of an optical system when performing sequential division of pupils in a second embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the main parts of an optical system when performing pupil exchange and division in a second embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a polarizing plate according to a second embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the main part of the optical system in the case of sequentially dividing the pupils in a third embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the main part configuration of an optical system when performing pupil exchange and division in a third embodiment of the binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of an optical system for performing stereoscopic vision using pupil division in a conventional microscope.

FIG. 11 is a configuration diagram of another optical system for performing stereoscopic vision using pupil division in a conventional microscope.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a modification of the optical system for performing stereoscopic vision by pupil division of the conventional microscope shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another modification of the optical system for performing stereoscopic vision using pupil division of the conventional microscope shown in FIG. 11;

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 Pupil split mirror 3L,
3R Mirror 4L, 4R
Imaging lenses 5L, 5R Observation eyepiece 6 Polarizing plate 7 Optical path splitting prisms 8L, 8R Observation direction adjustment prisms 9L, 9R Polarizing plate 10L
,10R prism

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A binocular stereoscopic viewing apparatus disposed behind a single objective system, comprising: pupil dividing means for dividing the pupil of the objective system into first and second parts; and first and second eyepieces. a lens; an eyepiece tube optical system that separately guides the luminous flux from each of the divided parts to the first or second eyepiece; A binocular stereoscopic viewing device comprising: switching means for mutually switching optical paths leading to eyepieces.