An endoscope includes a scope provided with a hard portion at a distal end of a long flexible portion having flexibility; an image capturing portion housed in the hard portion and having an image sensor; a transmission cable inserted into the scope and conductively connected to the image sensor at a distal end via a substrate, and a voltage conversion device mounted on the substrate and outputting a constant voltage to the image sensor with respect to a input voltage input to the transmission cable.

An endoscope includes a scope provided with a hard portion at a distal end of a long flexible portion having flexibility; an image capturing portion housed in the hard portion and having an image sensor; a transmission cable inserted into the scope and conductively connected to the image sensor at a distal end via a substrate, and a voltage conversion device mounted on the substrate and outputting a constant voltage to the image sensor with respect to a input voltage input to the transmission cable.

There are provided an endoscope system capable of suppressing an increase in the size of a first connector of an endoscope and of performing non-contact electric power supply and non-contact signal transmission, an endoscope, and an endoscope connector. A power receiving unit and a power supply unit are disposed opposite to each other along an insertion direction of first and second connectors, and an image signal transmission unit and an image signal receiving unit are disposed opposite to each other along the insertion direction of the first and second connectors. A first circuit board is disposed on the opposite side to the power supply unit with respect to the power receiving unit so as to partially overlap the power receiving unit in the insertion direction. The power receiving unit and the image signal transmission unit are disposed so as not to overlap each other in the insertion direction.

There are provided an endoscope system capable of suppressing an increase in the size of a first connector of an endoscope and of performing non-contact electric power supply and non-contact signal transmission, an endoscope, and an endoscope connector. A power receiving unit and a power supply unit are disposed opposite to each other along an insertion direction of first and second connectors, and an image signal transmission unit and an image signal receiving unit are disposed opposite to each other along the insertion direction of the first and second connectors. A first circuit board is disposed on the opposite side to the power supply unit with respect to the power receiving unit so as to partially overlap the power receiving unit in the insertion direction. The power receiving unit and the image signal transmission unit are disposed so as not to overlap each other in the insertion direction.

An endoscope device includes: an normal light image acquisition unit that acquires an normal light image; a special light image acquisition unit that acquires a special light image; a blended image generation unit that generates a blend image by combining one color component image from among a plurality of color component images constituting the normal light image and the special light image; and a superimposed image generation unit that generates a color superimposed image by combining the blended image with another color component image. The blended image generation unit generates the blended image by replacing a part of the pixels of the one color component image with the corresponding pixels of the special light image such that they are blended in a substantially uniform distribution over the entire blended image.

Provided is a biological observation apparatus including: illuminating portions that irradiate biological tissue with illumination light including light in R, G, and B regions, respectively; an image acquisition portion that acquires image signals from reflected light of the illumination light coming from the biological tissue; narrow-band-light generating portions that are disposed in the illuminating portions or the image acquisition portion and that, in wavelength bands of the illumination light, generate two narrow-band beams for at least one of the R, G, and B wavelength bands constituting the illumination light, on either side of a central wavelength of that wavelength band; and an image-generating portion that generates an image on the basis of two or more types of the image signals obtained from the reflected light including two or more narrow bands acquired by the image acquisition portion.

A capsule endoscope configured to be introduced into a subject is provided. The capsule endoscope includes: a magnetic switch configured to operate depending on a magnetic field externally applied; a first device including an inductor and configured to execute a predetermined function; a second device including no inductor and configured to execute a function different from that of the first device; and a controller configured to drive the second device without driving the first device when the magnetic field is applied to the magnetic switch.

The disclosure extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for producing an image in light deficient environments with luminance and chrominance emitted from a controlled light source.

The disclosure extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for producing an image in light deficient environments with luminance and chrominance emitted from a controlled light source.

One or more triggers, fluorescence or auto-fluorescence triggers, NIRAF triggers, methods of using triggers, fiber optic rotary joints (FORJ), free space beam combiners, OCT, SEE and/or fluorescence devices and systems for use therewith, methods of using and/or manufacturing same and storage mediums are provided. One or more embodiments using one or more triggers achieve structural compactness and/or high-speed acquisition while avoiding or reducing the need for high computational power. One or more embodiments use one or more triggers, one or more fluorescence triggers, one or more auto-fluorescence triggers, or NIRAF triggers, and/or one or more rotary joints, for performing pullback and/or image recording. Examples of optical applications that may involve the use of a trigger, fluorescence/auto-fluorescence trigger or NIRAF trigger, and/or a fiber optic rotary joint, include imaging, evaluating and characterizing/identifying biological objects or tissue, such as, but not limited to, for gastro-intestinal, otolaryngologic, cardio and/or ophthalmic applications.