JPH0614181Y2 - Stereoscopic endoscope - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention relates to a stereoscopic observation endoscope in which an index is provided in a direction in which a stereoscopic image with parallax is easily obtained with respect to the arrangement directions of two observation optical systems. .

[Prior Art] In recent years, an endoscope that can diagnose or inspect the inside by inserting an elongated insertion portion into a body cavity or a lumen has been widely used.

By the way, when diagnosing a diseased part or the like in a living body, it is desirable to be able to observe the degree of swelling of the affected part, that is, the unevenness.

Therefore, the applicant of the present invention has, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 62-18188.
No. 8 and a stereoscopic observation endoscope as shown in Japanese Patent Application No. 62-189944 are proposed.

By detecting the phase of an image from an endoscopic image obtained by a plurality of observation optical systems, the image can be viewed three-dimensionally.

In the conventional endoscope, only one index indicating the UP direction of the angle is provided in the field of view.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] By the way, when stereoscopic vision is performed, it is indispensable to align a plurality of images, and the alignment direction of two observation optical systems, that is, the direction in which parallax can be obtained and the observation direction. If the arrangement directions of the human eyes do not match or correspond to each other, it is difficult to visually recognize in three dimensions. However, conventionally, in the field of view obtained by an endoscope, there is one index indicating the UP direction of the angle within the perfect circle due to the mask. In this case, although a plurality of images can be aligned, there is no guideline for the alignment direction of the two observation optical systems of the endoscope, so that it is very difficult to match the alignment direction of the human eye. there were.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a stereoscopic observation endoscope provided with an index that makes it easy to stereoscopically recognize endoscopic images obtained from a plurality of observation optical systems. The purpose is to

[Means and Actions for Solving Problems] In the present invention, an index is provided in association with the mutual arrangement direction of the plurality of observation optical systems, and is provided as an index for alignment when facilitating stereoscopic viewing. This makes it possible to easily perform three-dimensional visual recognition by visual observation.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

1 to 6 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an observation optical system provided with a field mask in the first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a side view showing the appearance of the endoscope of the first embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of FIG. FIG. 4 is a front view of the tip portion, FIG. 5 is a front view showing a visual field mask provided with an index, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the visual field seen from the eyepiece.

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the stereoscopic observation endoscope 1 of the first embodiment is an elongated, flexible insertion part 2 so that it can be inserted into a body cavity or the like, and a rear end side of this insertion part 2. An operation section 3 continuously provided to the operation section 3, a light guide cable 4 extending from the operation section 3 to the outside, and two eyepiece flexible tubes 5a and 5b flexibly extending to the rear end of the operation section 3. It is composed of eyepieces 6a and 6b provided at the ends of the eyepiece flexible tubes 5a and 5b.

The front end of the insertion part 2 is formed of a hard member to form a tip forming part 11, and a rear part adjacent to the tip forming part 11 has a large number of joint pieces (not shown) arranged vertically (in the longitudinal direction of the insertion part 2). The bending portion 12 is formed so as to be bendable in the left and right directions, and the bending portion 12 can be bent in the up and down direction and the left and right direction by rotating the angle knob 13 provided on the side portion of the operation portion 3. There is. (Incidentally, the upward direction in the up and down direction when the tip forming portion 11 is bent by the operation of the angle knob 13 is abbreviated as the UP direction, and the lateral direction is abbreviated as the R / L direction.) The two eyepiece flexible tubes 5a , 5b are arranged perpendicular to the UP direction of the operation unit 3, and therefore the UP directions of the eyepiece lens systems 14a, 14b (see FIG. 1) in the eyepieces 6a, 6b are substantially the same, and It is structured according to the feeling of. The eyepiece flexible tubes 5a and 5b are provided with break-preventing members 15a and 15b; 16a and 16b, respectively, at the connecting portions with the operating portion 3 and the connecting portions with the eyepiece portions 6a and 6b. The eyepiece flexible tubes 5a and 5b are made flexible so that the eyepiece flexible tubes 5a and 5b can be aligned with the distance between both eyes of a human and can be easily aligned with the rotation direction. Further, the eyepieces 6a and 6b are respectively provided with rings capable of adjusting diopter. Furthermore, a camera or an image pickup device connected to an image processing device can be connected to each of the eyepieces 6a and 6b.

As shown in FIG. 4, two objective lens systems 21a and 21b are symmetrically spaced apart from each other with respect to the central axis O in the tip forming section 11 so that an image with parallax can be obtained. (Note that the larger the center-to-center distance d of both objective lens systems 21a and 21b is, the larger the parallax image can be obtained.
This distance direction is the parallax direction l or the parallax direction l
Is abbreviated. A nozzle 22 capable of supplying air and water toward the lens systems 21a and 21b is provided between the objective lens systems 21a and 21b. Further, the light distribution and the parallax are secured at positions equidistant from the objective lens systems 21a and 21b, that is, positions on the vertical bisector of the straight line connecting the centers of the two objective lens systems 21a and 21b. Therefore, an illumination lens system 23 and a channel 24 are provided.

The two objective lens systems 21a and 21b are arranged at an angle of about 45 ° with respect to the UP direction by the angle knob 13 in order to obtain parallax in both the vertical and horizontal directions. Further, when the same object is visually recognized by the two objective lens systems 21a and 21b, it has a structure in which it is seen with substantially the same size and distortion.

As shown in FIG. 3, illumination light is supplied from the light source device by connecting the light guide connector 25 attached to the tip of the light guide cable 4 to a light source device (not shown). Then, as shown in FIG. 1, the light guide 2
The illumination light transmitted at 6 is emitted from the exit end face through the illumination lens system 23 toward the subject. The object illuminated by this illumination light is moved by the objective lens systems 21a and 21b.
The optical images formed by the image guides 28a and 28b arranged so that the incident end surfaces 27a and 27b thereof are faced to the focal planes of the lens systems 21a and 21b are
The light is transmitted to the emission end faces 29a and 29b, respectively. The image guides 28a and 28b are made of flexible fiber bundles. Each emitting end face 29a, 29
Field masks 31a and 31b are attached to b, respectively, and the optical images in these field masks 31a and 31b are
Eyes 32a, 32b through eyepiece lens systems 14a, 14b
There are two observation optical systems that can be used for observation.
The optical images formed by these two observation optical systems are optical images having parallax, and the observer can visually perceive these two optical images having parallax and perceive them as stereoscopic endoscopic images.

By the way, in the first embodiment, the field masks 31a and 31b attached to the emission end faces 29a and 29b of the image guides 28a and 28b are provided so that the two optical images having parallax can be easily perceived as a stereoscopic image. , A direction perpendicular to the parallax direction 1 (for example, a vertical direction on the UP direction side,
That is, indicators 33a and 33b indicating the upper side) are provided.

As shown in FIG. 5, each visual field mask 31a or 31b is provided with an index 33a or 33b which is perpendicular to the parallax direction l, and therefore the image guide 28a, 28b is provided via the eyepiece lens system 14a, 14b. When the transmitted optical image is observed, it becomes as shown in FIGS. 6 (a) and 6 (b). Here, the arrangement direction S of the fibers of the fiber bundles forming the image guides 28a and 28b in the visual field is made parallel to the direction 1 in which the parallax is obtained. On the other hand, the wedge-shaped indexes 33a and 33b are set so as to indicate the side in the direction V perpendicular to the direction 1 in which parallax is obtained and close to the UP direction.

As shown in FIG. 5, the visual field mask 31a (or 31)
In addition to the index 33a (or 33b) protruding inward of the field of view b), the notch 34a (or 3) indicating the UP direction by the angle operation is also provided outside the field mask 31a (or 31b).
4b) and the like are provided, which can be used as a guideline for attaching indexes on the emission end faces 29a and 29b.

According to the first embodiment, each eyepiece lens system 14a, 14
In the circular visual field when observed through b, the indicators 33a and 33b indicating the azimuths orthogonal to the parallax direction 1 appear in the observation visual field, so that the observer can easily know the parallax direction 1. , Can be perceived in three dimensions easily. In addition, since the indexes 33a and 33b are projected toward the center of the visual field in the circular visual field, and are provided so as to appear on the upper side of the observation visual field in the first embodiment, the two images are converted into a stereoscopic image. Easy to perceive.

FIG. 7 shows the main part of the second embodiment of the present invention.

In the second embodiment, the field masks 41a and 41b are attached to the incident end faces of the image guides 42a and 42b. Image guides 42a, 42b arranged so that their incident end faces face the focal planes of the objective lenses 21a, 21b.
The field masks 41a and 41b shown in FIG. This field mask 41a or 41b
Includes an index 43a or 43b that projects inward of the circular opening and indicates the UP direction of the angle, and an index 44a or 44b that is formed by a notch that projects outward of the circular opening and that indicates the direction 1 of the parallax. It is provided.

FIG. 9 shows a view of the image guides 42a and 42b to which the visual field masks 41a and 41b provided with the indexes 43a, 44a and 43b and 44b are attached, as seen from the eyepiece side.

In this embodiment, the image guides 42a and 42b are arranged so that the fiber arrangement direction S is perpendicular to the angle UP direction. Others are the same as those in the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the notches 44a and 44b are formed by the notches.
Thus, it has substantially the same effect as that of the first embodiment, and further has an effect that the angle UP direction can be visually recognized by the indexes 43a and 43b.

FIG. 10 shows a modified field mask 51a (51b) in the second embodiment of the present invention.

In this modified example, instead of the notches 44a and 44b formed by the notches in the second embodiment, 2 in parallel with the parallax direction 1 is used.
Two indicators 52a, 53a; 52b, 53b are provided so as to project inside the visual field. For example, one visual field mask 51a is shown enlarged in FIG.

The operational effects of this modification are almost the same as those of the second embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the index 44a or 44b is parallel to the parallax direction, but it is also possible to provide the index 44a ', 44b' indicating the vertical direction as shown in FIG.

FIG. 13 shows a third embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment shows a case of an electronic endoscope 61.

As shown in FIG. 13, solid-state image pickup devices 63a and 63b are arranged at the focal planes of the objective lens systems 21a and 21b in the distal end forming portion 62 of the insertion portion. Then, from the exit end face of the light guide (not shown), the illumination lens system 2
The object illuminated by the illumination light emitted via the solid-state image pickup device 63a, 63
An image is formed on the imaging surface of b. Each solid-state imaging device 63a, 63b
Field masks 64a and 64b are attached to the image pickup surface of, and the field masks 64a and 64b are provided with indexes 65a and 65b indicating a direction orthogonal to the direction of parallax.

The image signals photoelectrically converted by the solid-state image pickup devices 63a and 63b are processed by the process circuits 66a and 66a as shown in FIG.
66b, a predetermined video signal is generated, and color display is performed on the color monitors 67a and 67b.
On the display screens of the color monitors 67a and 67b, the indexes 65a and 65b are displayed on the upper side orthogonal to the direction of the parallax in the endoscopic images, respectively. Therefore, stereoscopic image synthesis by the naked eyes 32a and 32b is performed from these images. You can easily.

It should be noted that each solid-state image sensor 63 is displayed on a single display screen.
Images captured by a and 63b may be alternately displayed, while an observer may stereoscopically view the images through liquid crystal glasses that are alternately switched between a transparent state and a light blocking state.

Further, in the present invention, the eyepieces 6a and 6b shown in FIG. 2 can be equipped with television cameras each having a built-in solid-state image pickup device to display on a color monitor.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, since the indices corresponding to the direction in which parallax is obtained are provided for the endoscopic images obtained in each observation optical system, the three-dimensional image obtained by the naked eye can be obtained. It has an effect that it can be easily synthesized.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 6 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an observation optical system provided with a visual field mask in the first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a side view showing an appearance of a stereoscopic observation endoscope of the first embodiment, and FIG. Top view, 4th
The figure is a front view of the tip, FIG. 5 is a front view showing a visual field mask provided with an index, FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing the visual field seen from the eyepiece, and FIG. 7 is a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a main part in an example, FIG. 8 is a front view showing an index in the second embodiment, FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a visual field seen from an eyepiece in the second embodiment, and FIG. 10 is a book. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a main part of a modification of the second embodiment of the invention, FIG. 11 is a front view of a field mask used in the modification, and FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a main part of another modification of the second embodiment. FIG. 13 and FIG. 13 are perspective views showing the distal end side of the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 14 is an explanatory view showing a display portion of an endoscopic image. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Stereoscopic observation endoscope, 2 ... Insertion part 6a, 6b ... Eyepiece part 14a, 14b ... Eyepiece lens system 21a, 21b ... Objective lens system 28a, 28b ... Image guide 31a, 31b ... Visual field mask 33a, 33b ... Index

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A stereoscopic observation endoscope having a plurality of observation optical systems and a visual field mask in which an index is provided in a field of view, wherein the visual field masks of the respective observation optical systems indicate directions in which parallax is obtained. A stereoscopic observation endoscope characterized by being provided with an index.