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Portable color imager borescope

  • US 4,941,456 A
  • Filed: 10/05/1989
  • Issued: 07/17/1990
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/05/1989
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A portable steerable borescope or endoscope of the type having, a viewing head, an insertion tube with a cable bendable steering section proximally of the viewing head, at least one pair of steering cables, a fiber optic object illumination channel connected to said viewing head, and an object image channel connected to said viewing head, which comprises;

  • an image sensor in said viewing head;

    servo motor operatively connected to each pair of steering cables in said bendable steering section;

    servo control means connected to said servo motor for operating said servo motor,remote actuator means operatively connected to said servo control means to permit an operator to manipulate said steering section by controlling the rotation of said servo motors;

    lamp means positioned to illuminate the object through said fiber optic illumination channel;

    video processor means for transforming the object image from said image channel into NTSC format for display;

    lamp dimmer means connected to said lamp means and said video processor means for controlling the light output of said lamp means in accordance with the video signal from said image sensor to provide optimum video image brightness;

    video display means connected to the output of said video processor, via an extended flexible cable for locating said display means remotely from said servo, lamp and video processor means, andpower supply means including a battery pack and means for selectively converting commercial alternating current power to direct current power for charging the battery pack and operating the borescope/endoscope.

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