JPH0724657B2 - Skin observation device - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a skin observation apparatus suitable for observing irregularities on a skin surface, particularly minute irregularities.

[Conventional technology]

In over-the-counter sales of cosmetics, it is important for a beauty counselor to select and recommend cosmetics that are most suitable for the customer after the customer is satisfied.

Conventionally, as a means for selecting and recommending such cosmetics,
A method of measuring and displaying water on the face and a method of observing the close-up of the skin with an ITV camera and a close-up on a TV monitor are used. However, the former is inaccurate because it is diagnosed only by water among many parameters that determine the condition of the skin, such as oil, water, hair, wrinkles, etc., and is not sufficient to obtain sufficient customer satisfaction. is there. In the latter case, the ITV camera needs to be close to the customer's face, and the lighting becomes large, so the customer is nervous and sweats due to the heat of the lighting, making it impossible to observe in a natural state. In addition, it has the drawback of giving discomfort to the customer, and it is not possible to observe it by spotting it on a non-flat part of the facial part such as the nose. It is impossible to capture such irregularities.

In order to solve such a problem, an apparatus as described in JP-A-60-198129 has been proposed. As shown in FIG. 10, the image fiberscope 2 is attached in front of the taking lens of the ITV camera 1. Inside the tip portion 3 of the image fiberscope 2, as shown in FIG. The light guide 5 for guiding the illumination light from 4, the objective lens 6, and the image guide fiber bundle 7 are built in, and the skin surface 8 is illuminated by the light guide 5, and the skin surface 8 is passed through the objective lens 6 and the image guide 7. ITV
The camera 1 can be used for observation and can be observed on the TV monitor 9. Here, since the light guide 5 is inclined with respect to the optical axis of the objective lens 6, if the skin surface has irregularities, a shadow is formed. Therefore, the irregularities are very easy to see and can be observed with a stereoscopic effect.

In this device, the tip of the image fiberscope 2 is small and can be easily brought close to any position on the face of the customer, and the illumination light of the light guide 5 does not include heat rays so that it is a good observation device. .

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, because optical fibers are fragile and easily broken,
Normally, the image fiberscope needs to be covered with a slightly hard and strong coating on the outside, and there are structural restrictions such as bending so that it does not bend over a certain angle, so that around the eyes, around the ears, etc. When trying to observe one after another, it is unexpectedly difficult to move the tip part (the operability is not good), and once the fiber of the image guide 7 is broken, a part of the image is lost and irrecoverable, etc. However, it was not always preferable.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a skin observation apparatus which is excellent in operability and does not cause a part of an image to be missing.

[Means and Actions for Solving Problems]

The skin observation apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that an imaging head having a built-in solid-state imaging device is used instead of the conventional ITV camera and the image fiber bundle.
According to this, since there is no fragile image fiber bundle, a part of the image is not lost and the operability is improved.
That is, the light guide is also made of an optical fiber, but unlike the image guide, even if the fiber is broken a little, the amount of illumination light is only slightly reduced and a part of the image is not lost. Therefore, it is possible to enhance the operability without causing any problem even if it can be bent much more freely than the one including the image guide. Of course, the electric wire required for the solid-state imaging device is stronger than the fiber.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is an external view of the entire first embodiment. The skin observation apparatus of the present invention, the imaging head 11, a light source that supplies illumination light to the imaging head 11 and a signal obtained from the imaging head 11.
A main body 13 including a signal processing device that performs a predetermined signal processing for displaying on a TV monitor 12. 14 is a light guide that sees the illumination light from the light source to the imaging head 11, 15
Is a cable for guiding a signal from the imaging head 11 to the signal processing device.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the imaging head 11. The imaging head 11 has a structure in which a cylindrical inner cylinder 17 is slidably inserted in a bottomed cylindrical outer cylinder 16. The outer cylinder 16 and the inner cylinder 17 are connected to each other by springs 18 having their ends fixed, and when the inner cylinder 17 is pushed into the outer cylinder 16, it is elastically pressed forward (leftward in FIG. 2) by the springs 18. It is like this. A tip portion 17a of the inner cylinder 17 is slightly projected inward in the radial direction, and a wide ring 19 is fitted in the inner cylinder 17 so as to be rotatable around a shaft. Inner cylinder 17
The part corresponding to the ring 19 of the
17b is formed, and the emission end of the light guide 14 is inserted through this elongated hole 17b and fixed to the ring 19, and is held while being inclined with respect to the central axis of the imaging head 11. Inner cylinder
An elongated hole 17c parallel to the axis is formed at a position separated from the tip of the objective lens 17 by a predetermined distance, and the objective lens 20 is externally attached by an attachment frame 16a integrated with the outer cylinder 16 inserted through the elongated hole 17c. Tube 1
Mounted on the inner surface of 6. On the other hand, a CCD (solid-state image sensor) 21 is mounted coaxially with the objective lens 20 inside the bottom of the outer cylinder 16. A stopper 22 that is constantly urged inward by a spring (not shown) is provided near the tip of the outer cylinder 16, and the inner cylinder 17 and the outer cylinder 16 are fixed by the pressing force of the stopper 22. When the protrusion 22a of the stopper 22 is pushed, the tip of the stopper 22 separates from the inner cylinder 17, and the inner cylinder 17 and the outer cylinder 16 can be displaced relatively in the axial direction.

The light guide 14 is temporarily fixed to the hole 23a formed in the side wall of the boot 23 fixed to the outer side of the bottom of the outer cylinder 16 with a slight slack, and together with the cable 15 for the CCD 21, the boot 2
It is led out from the central hole 23b of 3 and connected to the main body 13.

Since the skin observation apparatus according to the present invention is configured as described above, when the tip 17a of the inner cylinder 17 is lightly pressed against the skin 24 as shown in FIG. Is roughly flat. In this state, press the stopper 22 to release it, and while watching the TV monitor 12, move the outer cylinder 16 back and forth so that it is in focus (for the clearest view), remove your finger from the stopper 22 at the correct position, and use the stopper 22 to move the inner cylinder. 17 and the outer cylinder 16 are fixed. In this state, focused observation is possible. Further, since the light emitting end of the light guide 14 is obliquely attached, a shadow is generated on the surface of the skin to give a three-dimensional effect (it does not actually look three-dimensional) as usual. Further, since the emitting end of the light guide 14 is attached to the ring 19, oblique illumination from different angles is possible by rotating the ring 19 around the axis. The rotation range is determined by the length of the long hole 17b provided in the inner cylinder 17,
The light guide 14 is slightly loosened so as to be able to cope with this rotation.

In this embodiment, if the ring 19 is loosely fitted, it will rotate with a slight bounce and it is difficult to use.Therefore, a click is provided at an appropriate position on the contact surface between the ring 19 and the inner cylinder 17 to make it predetermined. The ring 19 may be rotated at each angle so that the ring 19 is semi-fixed after the rotation. It is also effective to keep the ring 19 tightly fitted to the inner cylinder 17 so that it does not rotate unless a certain amount of force is applied.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the distal end portion of the image pickup head 11 of the second embodiment, which is provided with a slit 17d on the side surface of the inner cylinder 17 so that the polarization filter 25 can be inserted therein, and the light guide 14 The polarizing filter 26 is fitted to the exit end of the. Since the linearly polarized light is the linearly polarized light even if it is specularly reflected, rotating the polarizing filter 25 provided on the inner cylinder 17 to an appropriate position can remove the specularly reflected light from the skin 24, which makes it very easy to see.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the distal end portion of the image pickup head 11 of the third embodiment, which is configured so that the distal end portion 17a of the inner cylinder 17 is rotatable and can be obliquely illuminated from any 360 ° direction. .

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an essential part of the image pickup head 11 of the fourth embodiment. Instead of obliquely installing the light guide 14, the light guide 14 is set parallel to the axis and a prism 27 (first 5 (A)) or a reflecting mirror 28 (FIG. 5 (B)) is placed so that oblique illumination is provided. If the prism 27 or the reflecting mirror 28 is rotatably held, the irradiation angle can be freely changed.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of the imaging head 11 of the fifth embodiment. This is because the light guide 14 is not completely fixed to the ring 19 and is made of rubber so that it can be moved back and forth when a certain amount of force is applied. It is held by being elastically sandwiched, and the irradiation range is changed by moving it back and forth.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the essential parts of the light guide of the sixth embodiment, in which the tip of the light guide 14 is bifurcated or annular.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the main part of the image pickup head 11 of the seventh embodiment, in which the tip end surface of the light guide 14 is made linear.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of an essential part of the image pickup head 11 of the eighth embodiment, in which the objective lens 20 is not fixed to the outer cylinder 16 but the central axis (optical axis).
Slidably supported along the conjugate distance (skin 24 and
Even if the distance to CCD21) is the same, the focus is adjusted at two objective lens positions. At that time, if one is β, the other is 1 / β, so that it can be observed at different magnifications.

In addition to the above-described embodiment, filters suitable for observing the skin may be inserted in the exit end of the light guide 14 and the optical path of the objective lens 20, respectively. Further, the focus position of the objective lens 20 may be configured to substantially coincide with the surface of the CCD 21 when the tip portion 17a of the inner cylinder 17 is pressed against the skin 24.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the skin observing device according to the present invention has excellent operability and practically excellent merits such that a part of an image is not lost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of the entire first embodiment of a skin observation apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an imaging head of the first embodiment, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are second and third embodiments, respectively. FIG. 5 to FIG. 9 are sectional views of the main part of the imaging head of the fourth to eighth embodiments, FIG. 10 is an external view of a conventional example, and FIG. 11 is a conventional example. It is a tip part sectional view of the image fiberscope of an example. 11 …… Imaging head, 12 …… TV monitor, 13 …… Main body, 14
…… Light guide, 15 …… Cable, 16 …… External cylinder, 17…
… Inner cylinder, 18 …… Spring, 19 …… Ring, 20 …… Objective lens, 21 …… CCD, 22 …… Stopper, 23 …… Boots, 24
……Skin.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yuji Ikuma 43-2 2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Matsui 43-2 2 Hatagaya Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Olympus Optical Industry Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An illumination light source, a light guide for irradiating the skin surface with light from the illumination light source, an imaging head for imaging the skin surface, and an electric signal from the imaging head is displayed via an image processing device. A tubular body having a TV monitor, wherein the imaging head has a tip portion pressed against the skin surface;
A skin observation device comprising an objective lens and an image pickup element mounted in the tubular body, and an emission end of the light guide attached to the tubular body.