Image pickup apparatus for endoscopes
First Claim
1. An image pickup apparatus for an endoscope having an insertion portion to be inserted into an object to be observed, said image pickup apparatus, comprising:
- an illumination optical system including a source of illumination light and means for transmitting said illuminating light along a first optical path to an object being observed;
an image pickup optical system for producing a color image of said object being observed, said image pickup optical system including a solid-state image pickup device and means for transmitting illuminating light reflected off said object to be observed along a second optical path to said solid-state image pickup device; and
optical filter means for correcting spectral image pickup properties of an overall optical path which includes said first and second optical paths, said optical filter means being located in at least one of said first and second optical paths, said optical filter means giving weight to the spectral properties of elements constituting both said illumination optical system and said image pickup optical system in a manner which corrects the spectral properties of an illumination light incident upon said solid-state image pickup device in a uniform manner in a visual ray wavelength spectral zone so as to ensure that said image pickup optical system produces a faithful color image of said object to be observed.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An image pickup apparatus for endoscopes, which makes an image of an object to be observed employing a solid-state image pickup device such as a charge-coupled-device, is provided with an optical filter disposed on the optical path including an illumination optical system for applying illumination light to the object to be observed and an objective optical system for forming an optical image of the object to be observed on said solid-state image pickup device, for correcting the spectral properties of said optical path, thereby permitting a faithful color picture image to be reproduced and a picture image suitable for a kind of the object to be observed to be made.
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Citations
5 Claims
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1. An image pickup apparatus for an endoscope having an insertion portion to be inserted into an object to be observed, said image pickup apparatus, comprising:
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an illumination optical system including a source of illumination light and means for transmitting said illuminating light along a first optical path to an object being observed; an image pickup optical system for producing a color image of said object being observed, said image pickup optical system including a solid-state image pickup device and means for transmitting illuminating light reflected off said object to be observed along a second optical path to said solid-state image pickup device; and optical filter means for correcting spectral image pickup properties of an overall optical path which includes said first and second optical paths, said optical filter means being located in at least one of said first and second optical paths, said optical filter means giving weight to the spectral properties of elements constituting both said illumination optical system and said image pickup optical system in a manner which corrects the spectral properties of an illumination light incident upon said solid-state image pickup device in a uniform manner in a visual ray wavelength spectral zone so as to ensure that said image pickup optical system produces a faithful color image of said object to be observed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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Specification