Solid State Variable Direction of View Endoscope

• US 20100010301A1
• Filed: 07/08/2008
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Karl Storz Imaging, Inc (Karl Storz Se & Co. Kg)
• Original Assignee: Karl Storz Imaging, Inc (Karl Storz Se & Co. Kg)
• Inventors: Hoeg, Hans David, Hale, Eric L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,814,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/109
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0005 combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00096 Optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00179 for off-axis viewing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00181 for multiple fixed viewing angles A61B1/00193 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00183 for variable viewing angles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00188 with focusing or zooming features
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/042 characterised by a proximal camera, e.g. a CCD camera
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/243 Objectives for endoscopes
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/2476 Non-optical details, e.g. housings, mountings, supports

Abstract

An endoscope with a wide angle lens that comprises an optical axis that is angularly offset from a longitudinal axis of the endoscope such that the optical axis resides at an angle greater than zero degrees to the longitudinal axis. The wide angle lens system simultaneously gathers an endoscopic image field at least spanning the longitudinal axis and an angle greater than ninety degrees to the longitudinal axis. The endoscope further includes an imager comprising an imaging surface area that receives at least a portion of endoscopic image transmitted by the wide angle lens system and produces output signals corresponding to the endoscopic image field and image forming circuitry that receives the output signal and produces an image signal.

Claims

1. An endoscope, comprising:

a wide angle lens system that comprises an optical axis that is angularly offset from a longitudinal axis of the endoscope such that the optical axis resides at an angle greater than zero degrees to the longitudinal axis, wherein the wide angle lens system simultaneously gathers an endoscopic image field at least spanning the longitudinal axis and an angle greater than ninety degrees to the longitudinal axis;

an imager comprising an imaging surface area that receives at least a portion of endoscopic image transmitted by the wide angle lens system and produces output signals corresponding to the endoscopic image field; and

image forming circuitry that receives the output signal and produces an image signal.

2. The endoscope of claim 1, further comprising image selecting circuitry that receives the image signal and produces a region of interest signal that corresponds to a region of interest field that is less than the endoscopic image field.

3. The endoscope of claim 2, wherein the region of interest field corresponds to a standard endoscopic viewing angle.

4. The endoscope of claim 3, wherein the standard endoscopic viewing angle is selected from a group consisting of zero, thirty, forty-five, and seventy degrees.

5. The endoscope of claim 2, further comprising image control circuitry that receives a region of interest field selection from a user input and produces a field control signal identifying the region of interest field;

wherein the image selecting circuitry receives the field control signal and produces the region of interest signal in accordance with the field control signal.

6. The endoscope of claim 5, wherein the user input enables a user to select at least one preset standard endoscopic viewing angle and instructs the image control circuitry to generate a field control signal in accordance with that selection.

7. The endoscope of claim 6, wherein the user input enables a user to select a progressive adjustment and produces an adjustment signal that incrementally alters the region of interest.

8. The endoscope of claim 7, wherein the adjustment signal incrementally alters the viewing angle above or below the at least one preset standard endoscopic viewing angle.

9. The endoscope of claim 7, wherein the adjustment signal incrementally increases the area of the region of interest in at least one longitudinal direction.

10. The endoscope of claim 9, wherein the adjustment signal incrementally increases the area of the region of interest in two longitudinal directions.

11. The endoscope of claim 5, wherein the user input enables a user to rotate the image formed by the region of interest signal.

12. The endoscope of claim 5, wherein the image selecting circuitry rotates the image formed by the region of interest signal.

13. The endoscope of claim 12, wherein the image selecting circuitry rotates the image formed by the region of interest signal about the axis of the viewing angle.

14. The endoscope of claim 2, further comprising video processing circuitry that generates video signals on the basis of the image signal and outputs the video signal to a display.

15. The endoscope of claim 14, wherein the video processing circuitry generates an all image video signal based on the image signal and outputs the all image video signal to the display.

16. The endoscope of claim 15, wherein the video processing circuitry generates a region of interest video signal based on the region of interest signal and outputs the region of interest video signal to the display.

17. The endoscope of claim 16, wherein the video processing circuitry generates a combined video signal comprising a first frame displaying the region of interest video signal and a second frame displaying the all image video signal.

18. The endoscope of claim 17, wherein the second frame includes indicia denoting the local region of interest corresponding the all image video signal.

19. The endoscope of claim 1, wherein the image surface area is rectangular and comprises a longitudinal dimension that is aligned with the longitudinal dimension of the endoscopic image field.

20. The endoscope of claim 1, further comprising an image redistribution transmission system residing in the transmission path between the wide angle lens system and the imager.

21. The endoscope of claim 20, wherein the image redistribution transmission system comprises at least one lens that alters the distribution of the endoscopic image field to correspond to the imaging surface area.

22. The endoscope of claim 21, wherein the at least one lens redistributes substantially the entire endoscopic image field in the longitudinal direction to correspond to the imaging surface area.

23. The endoscope of claim 20, wherein the image redistribution transmission system comprises an f-theta lens system.