Electronic endoscope

• US 8,444,548 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Issued: 05/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Medical Systems Corporation (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Kumei, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith, Philip R
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOLER, RYNAE E
• Application Number:
  US12/894,887
• Publication Number:
  US 20110021872A1
• Time in Patent Office: 964 Days
• Field of Search: 359/676, 359/694, 359/696, 359/697, 359/698, 600/176, 600/167, 600/109
• US Class Current: 600/109
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00009 of image signals during a use of endoscope
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00096 Optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00188 with focusing or zooming features
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/018 for receiving instruments
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/04 combined with photographic or television appliances

Abstract

An insertion unit has a channel through which a treatment tool can be inserted. A distal end of the insertion unit has a single-focus objective optical system or a focal-point-variable objective optical system to focus the optical image on a light receiving surface of an image capturing element. At a short object distance from the distal end, an image signal with a sufficient resolution is obtained from the image capturing element. In this state, a treatment tool projected by a reduced amount from a distal end opening of the channel is captured on a light receiving surface of the image capturing element. A required resolution is also provided for a far side.

Claims

1. An electronic endoscope comprising:

an elongate insertion unit;

an objective optical system provided at a distal end of the insertion unit and having a predetermined view angle to form an optical image of a subject;

a solid image capturing element comprising a predetermined number of pixels in which the objective optical system forms an optical image of the subject;

a lens moving unit that, when on the basis of a brightness signal generated from an image signal resulting from image capturing of the subject comprising a black band and a white band which have the same width, a maximum value of a brightness signal for the white subject is defined as Imax, a minimum value of a brightness signal for the black subject is defined as Imin, and a contrast I is defined by I=(Imax−

Imin)/(Imax+Imin), moves at least some lenses constituting the objective optical system between two or more setting positions including a first setting position and a second setting position corresponding to at least the two positions, the two positions being a position on a far point side located at a first object distance from a distal end of the insertion unit, and a position on a near point side located at a second object distance smaller than the first object distance, to vary a focal distance of the objective optical system so that the depth of field has an overlapping part, in order to capture each subject at at least the two positions, at a contrast I of at least a predetermined value by the objective optical system; and

a channel through which a treatment tool can be inserted and which is formed to be opened so as to locate the distal end of the treatment tool projected by the second object distance, within a view angle when set by the lens moving unit so as to focus on the position on the near point side, wherein

the lens moving unit is configured to be able to set at least some of the lenses constituting the objective optical system, at the two setting positions corresponding to the near point side and the far point side, so that the objective optical system has a depth of field at which, in a setting state to the focal distance to focus on the position on the near point side, the subject comprising a 35-μ

m pitch black and white band pair can be captured at a contrast I of at least almost 10% and at which, in a setting state to the focal distance to focus on position on the far point side, the subject having a 0.5-mm pitch black and white band pair can be captured at a contrast I of at least almost 10% at a distance of 50 mm from the distal end of the insertion unit.

2. The electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the lens moving unit is able to continuously vary at least one lens constituting the objective optical system having a depth of field at which, in the setting state to the focal distance to focus on the position on the near point side, the subject comprising a 35-μ

m pitch black and white band pair can be captured at a contrast I of at least almost 10% and at which, in the setting state to the focal distance to focus on the position on the far point side, the subject having a 0.5-mm pitch black and white band pair can be captured at a contrast I of at least almost 10% at a distance of 50 mm from the distal end of the insertion unit.

3. The electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the lens moving unit is further able to set at least one lens constituting the objective optical system, so that the depth of field of a subject at a third position between the two positions on the near point side and the far point side has an overlapping part in each case of the position on the near point side and the position on the far point side.

4. The electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein if a height of light on a distal end surface of the objective optical system is defined as Lh, a radius of the distal end opening of the channel is defined as R, a distance between an optical axis of the objective optical system and the center of the distal end opening is defined as D, an angle of view at which an image can be formed in the solid image capturing element via the objective optical system is defined as θ

, and an object distance to the subject is defined as d, the following expression is satisfied;

D≦

d/tan(90°

−

θ

/2)+Lh−

R.

5. The electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein an image capturing device including the objective optical system and the solid image capturing element has a view angle of at least 100°

when a focal distance is set to focus on a position on the near point side by the lens moving unit, and the image capturing element has a mosaic color filter for which the number of pixels effective for monitor display is at least 600 thousand.

14. The electronic endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the lens moving unit includes an actuator that moves the some of the lenses in a direction of the optical axis of the objective optical system so that the depth of field covers 5.2 mm to 10 mm in a setting state to focus on the position on the near point side and the depth of field covers 10 mm to 100 mm in a setting state to focus on the position on the far point side.

6. An electronic endoscope system comprising:

an electronic endoscope including;

an elongate insertion unit;

an objective optical system provided at a distal end of the insertion unit and forms an optical image of a subject; and

a solid image capturing element having a light receiving surface located at a predetermined position of the objective optical system, to execute a photoelectric conversion on the optical image formed on the light receiving surface;

an image processing device that converts an image signal from the solid image capturing element into a video signal to be displayed on a monitor;

a lens moving unit that, when on the basis of a brightness signal generated from an image signal resulting from image capturing of the subject comprising a black band and a white band which have the same width, a maximum value of a brightness signal for the white subject is defined as Imax, a minimum value of a brightness signal for the black subject is defined as Imin, and a contrast I is defined by I=(Imax−

Imin)/(Imax+Imin), varies a focal distance of the objective optical system, in order to capture each subject located at a position on a far point side located at a first object distance from a distal end of the insertion unit, and at a position on a near point side located at a second object distance smaller than the first object distance, at a contrast I of at least a predetermined value by the objective optical system; and

a treatment tool insertion channel formed so as to locate the distal end of the treatment tool projected by the second object distance, within a view range of a monitor when set to the near point side by the lens moving unit, wherein

the lens moving unit includes an actuator for moving at least some of lenses constituting the object optical system, so that the objective optical system has a depth of field at which, in a setting state to a focal distance to focus on the position on the near point side, the subject comprising a 35-μ

m pitch black and white band pair can be captured at a contrast I of at least almost 10% and at which, in a setting state to a focal distance to focus on position on the far point side, the subject having a 0.5-mm pitch black and white band pair can be captured at a contrast I of at least almost 10% at a distance of 50 mm from the distal end of the insertion unit.

7. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 6, comprising a focus control unit that generates a control signal that controls the lens moving unit, on the basis of an output signal from the solid image capturing element, to set the objective optical system in a focus state.

8. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 6, wherein if a height of light on a distal end surface of the objective optical system is defined as Lh, a radius of the distal end opening of the treatment tool insertion channel is defined as R, a distance between an optical axis of the objective optical system and the center of the distal end opening is defined as D, an angle of view at which an image can be formed in the solid image capturing element via the objective optical system is defined as θ

, and an object distance to the subject is defined as d, the following expression is satisfied;

D≦

d/tan(90°

−

θ

/2)+Lh−

R.

9. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 6, wherein the distal end opening of the channel is located in association with a diagonal direction in a display area having a substantially rectangle shape on the monitor in which the display area is larger, the display area showing an optical image captured by the solid image capturing element.

10. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 6, wherein an image capturing device including the objective optical system and the solid image capturing element has a view angle of at least 100°

when a focal distance is set to focus on the position on the near point side by the lens moving unit, and the solid image capturing element has a mosaic color filter for which the number of pixels effective for monitor display is at least 600 thousand.

11. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 7, wherein if the brightness level of an output signal from the solid image capturing element is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the focus control unit controls the objective optical system so that the objective control system is focused at the subject at a position on the far point side.

12. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 6, wherein the electronic endoscope has a memory that stores information on optical characteristics of the objective optical system.

13. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 7, wherein the electronic endoscope has a memory that stores information on optical characteristics of the objective optical system, and the focus control unit utilizes the information to perform focus control on the objective optical system.

15. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 6, wherein the lens moving unit includes the actuator that moves the some of the lenses constituting the objective optical system in a direction of the optical axis of the objective lens system so that the depth of field covers 5.2 mm to 10 mm in a setting state to focus on the position on the near point side and the depth of field covers 10 mm to 100 mm in a setting state to focus on the position on the far point side.

16. The electronic endoscope system according to claim 6, wherein the image processing device comprises an auto-focusing unit for automatically setting the some of the lenses constituting the objective optical system to a position where the contrast of the brightness signal in the image signal is at a peak.