Endoscope with alterable viewing angle
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system, comprising:
- an endoscope section, having an image receiving portion at an area thereof, which image receiving portion receives an optical image, and transmits the optical image to another portion thereof;
a sleeve assembly, sized to cover said endoscope section and extending along an axis, and having an optical element which changes a direction of light coming from an outside said sleeve assembly, and directs light to said image receiving portion of said endoscope section from the area outside said sleeve assembly.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An optical endoscope assembly. The assembly includes an endoscope portion which can be optical or electrical, surrounded by a sheath. The sheath includes a window pointing generally to the side, and a mirror which changes a position of incoming light. The mirror can be fixed or movable. If a fixed mirror is used, then a set of interchangeable sheaths can be used, each of which has a different mirror angle. The sheath can also be rotated once in the body to change an orientation angle from which the light is received. An image processing circuit may process the image received from the endoscope, including inverting at least a portion of the image.
102 Citations
137 Claims
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1. A system, comprising:
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an endoscope section, having an image receiving portion at an area thereof, which image receiving portion receives an optical image, and transmits the optical image to another portion thereof;
a sleeve assembly, sized to cover said endoscope section and extending along an axis, and having an optical element which changes a direction of light coming from an outside said sleeve assembly, and directs light to said image receiving portion of said endoscope section from the area outside said sleeve assembly. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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55. An assembly, comprising:
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an endoscope part, having a first portion adapted to receive optical energy, and a second portion adapted to supply information indicative of the optical energy;
a sheath, extending generally along an axis, and having an inner surface which is sized to be larger than an outer surface of said endoscope part, and located around said endoscope part, said sheath having an optical window located in a location which forms a predetermined non-zero degree angle with said axis, and having an optical portion located to change a direction of incoming optical energy from said optical window to the direction of said axis. - View Dependent Claims (56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71)
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72. A method, comprising:
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obtaining an optical image using an endoscope; and
mirror inverting at least a portion of said image. - View Dependent Claims (73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86)
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87. A method, comprising:
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inserting an endoscope into a body cavity;
first obtaining an image from said endoscope from a specified viewing area in said body cavity; and
without removing said endoscope from said body cavity, second obtaining an image of a different viewing area than said specified viewing area. - View Dependent Claims (88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 101)
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100. A method, comprising:
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using an endoscope to obtain an optical image from a body cavity of a patient; and
varying an angle from which said optical image is obtained. - View Dependent Claims (102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107)
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108. A method, comprising:
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first obtaining a first image from a first position in a body cavity; and
second obtaining, using the same device as used to obtain said first image, and simultaneously in time to receiving said first image, a second image from a second position in the same body cavity. - View Dependent Claims (109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 131, 132, 133, 135, 137)
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115. An endoscope, comprising:
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a scope portion, which extends in a first direction, and which includes an image coupling element for acquiring an image and coupling said image in said first direction, said scope portion formed with a window which is positioned to acquire an image from a direction that makes a nonzero angle with said first direction; and
an optical direction changing element, which changes a direction of said image from said direction, to the first direction.
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121. An endoscope, comprising:
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a scope portion, having a first window adapted to acquire an image of a first viewing area from a first direction, and a second window adapted to acquire an image of a second viewing area from a second direction, different than said first direction; and
an image element, simultaneously acquiring said images from said first and second viewing areas.
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130. A method, comprising:
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an endoscope portion including an optical coupling element and a sheath covering said optical coupling element; and
an image processing element, receiving an image from said optical coupling element, and processing said image to invert at least a portion of said image.
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134. A method, comprising:
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using an optical endoscope with a sheath to obtain an image from a specified nonzero angle of incidence relative to said endoscope; and
changing a sheath to use a different another sheath that images from a different angle of incidence, and then using said optical endoscope to obtain a second image from a second specified nonzero angle of incidence.
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136. An endoscope, comprising:
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an optical receiving element, and an optical endoscope system obtaining an image of a specified area, and coupling said image to only a portion of said optical receiving element, a rest of said optical receiving element being used for a purpose other than obtaining said image of said specified area.
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Specification