Endoscope

• US 20060161047A1
• Filed: 03/20/2006
• Published: 07/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: Miyoshi, Hiroaki
• Application Number:
  US11/384,891
• Publication Number:
  US 20060161047A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/157
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00091 Nozzles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/05 characterised by the image sensor, e.g. camera, being in the distal end portion
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/12 with cooling or rinsing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/126 provided with means for cleaning in-use

Abstract

An endoscope having an elongated insertion portion includes first and second image pick-up portions including first and second objective optical systems arranged to a distal end portion of the insertion portion, and first and second solid-state image pick-up devices arranged to image forming positions of the objective optical systems, and a nozzle which is arranged to the first and second objective optical systems for fluid discharging operation. The endoscope further includes a switching device which switches the first and second image pick-up portions.

Claims

1. An endoscope having an insertion portion which is inserted into an examined body, characterized by comprising:

a first image pick-up portion provided at a distal end portion of the insertion portion for performing observation of a subject under a first condition, the first image pick-up portion having a first objective optical member and a first solid-state image pick-up device arranged at a position to form image of the first objective optical member;

a second image pick-up portion provided at the distal end portion of the insertion portion for performing observation of the subject under a second condition, the second image pick-up portion having a second objective optical member and a second solid-state image pick-up device arranged at a position to form image of the second objective optical member;

a switching device for switching between an observation image of the subject picked up by the first image pick-up portion to be displayed on display means and an observation image of the subject picked up by the second image pick-up portion to be displayed on the display means; and

a nozzle arranged such as to be able to discharge fluid to the first objective optical member and the second objective optical member.

2. An endoscope according to claim 1, characterized in that the nozzle has an opening which discharges fluid substantially in one direction, and the first and second objective optical members are arranged in the one direction.

3. An endoscope according to claim 1, characterized in that the objective optical member constituted by the image pick-up portion with high using frequency is arranged nearer to the nozzle than the objective optical member constituted by the image pick-up portion with low using frequency is one of the first and second image pick-up portions.

4. An endoscope according to claim 1, characterized in that the first image pick-up portion is an image pick-up portion for observation with the normal light for performing observation of the subject with the normal light and the second image pick-up portion is an image pick-up portion for observation with the specific light for performing observation of the subject with the specific light, and the first objective optical member of the first image pick-up portion is arranged nearer to the nozzle than the second objective optical member of the second image pick-up portion.

5. An endoscope according to claim 1, further characterized by comprising:

two illumination optical members which output illumination light to the distal end portion of the insertion portion; and

a treatment tool channel which projects a treatment tool from an opening arranged to the distal end portion of the insertion portion.

6. An endoscope according to claim 5, characterized in that the first and second objective optical members are arranged in an area surrounded by two straight lines which are extended from the center of the opening towards the centers of the two illumination optical members respectively and the outer periphery of the distal end surface of the insertion portion at the distal end surface of the distal end portion of the insertion portion.

7. An endoscope according to claim 4, characterized in that the distal end portion of the insertion portion has two illumination optical members which output illumination light, and the illumination optical members or the objective optical members are arranged so that a line segment connecting the centers of the two illumination optical members crosses a line segment connecting the centers of the first and second objective optical systems.

8. An endoscope according to claim 4, characterized in that the image pick-up portion for observation with the specific light is an image pick-up portion for observation with fluorescent light which obtains a fluorescent image of the subject.

9. An endoscope according to claim 8, characterized in that the image pick-up portion for observation with the fluorescent light has an excitation light cut-off filter which cuts-off excitation light.

10. An endoscope according to claim 1, characterized in that the switching device is provided to a connector for detachably connecting the endoscope to an external device which is used in combination with the endoscope.

11. An endoscope according to claim 1, characterized in that the second solid-state image pick-up device is a solid-state image pick-up device having an amplifying function therein.

12. An endoscope having an insertion portion which is inserted into an examined body, characterized by comprising:

a first image pick-up portion and a second image pick-up portion having a first objective optical member and a second objective optical member provided at the distal end portion of the insertion portion and a first solid-state image pick-up device and a second solid-state image pick-up device which are of different types and which are arranged at positions to form images of the first objective optical member and the second objective optical member respectively;

a switching device for switching between an observation image of the subject picked up by the first image pick-up portion to be displayed and an observation image of the subject picked up by the second image pick-up portion to be displayed; and

a nozzle arranged such as to be able to discharge fluid to the first objective optical member and the second objective optical member.

13. An endoscope according to claim 12, characterized in that the second solid-state image pick-up device has an amplifying function therein.

14. An endoscope according to claim 12, characterized in that the first and second image pick-up portions are an image pick-up portion for observation with normal light which forms an image under the illumination of visible light and an image pick-up portion for observation with fluorescent light which picks-up an image for obtaining a fluorescent image under the illumination of excitation light.

15. An endoscope according to claim 12, further characterized by comprising:

two illumination optical members which output illumination light to the distal end portion of the insertion portion; and

a treatment tool channel from which a treatment tool is projected from an opening arranged to the distal end portion of the insertion portion.

16. An endoscope according to claim 15, characterized in that the first and second objective optical members are arranged in an area surrounded by two straight lines which are extended from the center of the opening towards the centers of the two illumination optical members respectively and the outer periphery of the distal end surface of the insertion portion at the distal end surface of the distal end portion of the insertion portion.

17. An endoscope according to claim 14, characterized in that the distal end portion of the insertion portion has two illumination optical members which output illumination light, and the illumination optical members or the objective optical members are arranged so that a line segment connecting the centers of the two illumination optical members crosses a line segment connecting the centers of the first and second objective optical systems.

18. An endoscope according to claim 16, characterized in that the switching device is provided to a connector for detachably connecting the endoscope to a device which is used in combination with the endoscope.

19. An endoscope according to claim 13, characterized in that the switching device is set such that when the power supply of the external device is turned on, the observation image from the first image pick-up portion is first displayed on the display means.

20. An endoscope according to claim 13, characterized in that the image pick-up portion for observation with fluorescent light has an excitation light cut-off filter which cuts-off excitation light.

21. An endoscope according to claim 12, characterized in that the nozzle has an opening which discharges fluid substantially in one direction, and the first and second objective optical members are arranged in the one direction.

22. An endoscope according to claim 13, characterized in that the first image pick-up portion is an image pick-up portion for observation with the normal light for picking up observation image of the subject with the normal light and the second image pick-up portion is an image pick-up portion for observation with the fluorescent light for picking up observation image of the subject with the fluorescent light, and

the first objective optical member is arranged nearer to the nozzle than the second objective optical member.

23. An endoscope system comprising:

an endoscope having plural image pick-up portions which are formed with plural objective optical members and solid-state image pick-up devices at the distal end portion of an insertion portion which is inserted into an examined body, the solid-state image pick-up devices are arranged respectively at positions to form images of the respective objective optical members and have different image pick-up functions respectively;

a switching device provided to the endoscope for displaying an observation image of a subject picked up by either one of the plural image pick-up devices selectively on display means;

a nozzle which is provided at the distal end portion of the insertion portion and of which the direction to discharge fluid is set in the direction in which the plural objective optical members are arranged;

a light source device for switching illumination lights that are different at least in wavelength bands in correspondence with the plural image pick-up portions having different image pick-up functions and supplying the illumination light to the subject via the endoscope; and

a signal processing device for processing image signals corresponding to the plural image pick-up portions respectively.

24. An endoscope system according to claim 23, characterized in that the plural image pick-up portions are an image pick-up portion for observation with the normal light for picking up images with the normal light of the wavelength band in the visible range and an image pick-up portion for observation with the fluorescent light for picking up images with the fluorescent light emitted by irradiation of an excitation light.

25. An endoscope having an insertion portion which is inserted into an examined body, characterized by comprising:

a first image pick-up device and a second image pick-up device having a first objective optical member and a second objective optical member provided at the distal end portion of the insertion portion, and a first image pick-up means and a second image pick-up means arranged respectively at positions to form images of the first objective optical member and the second objective optical member;

switching means for switching between an observation image of a subject picked up by the first image pick-up device to be displayed and an observation image of the subject picked up by the second image pick-up device to be displayed; and

a nozzle arranged such as to be able to discharge fluid to the first objective optical member and the second objective optical member.