A dividing wall member is provided inside a specific bending piece selected from a plurality of bending pieces, an internal space of the bending piece is divided by the dividing wall member into a first space that opens corresponding to one rotating shaft, of rotating shafts that form a left and right pair, and a second space that is larger than the first space and opens corresponding to another rotating shaft, of the rotating shafts that form a left and right pair, and rotating shafts that form an upper and lower pair, a signal cable is inserted as a first internal component inside a first space, and a pair of light guides and a treatment instrument insertion channel are inserted as second internal components inside the second space.

An optical fiber structure according to the present application includes a cylindrical resin body, and a plurality of circumferential arrays of optical fiber bare wires disposed within the resin body and extending along a longitudinal direction of the resin body. The resin body includes a linear slit provided at a location intermediate the length of the resin body. The linear slit extends from an outer surface to an inner bore of the resin body and extending substantially parallel to the bare wires.

Methods and systems for acquiring and/or projecting images from and/or to a target area are provided. Such a method or system can includes an optical fiber assembly which may be driven to scan the target area in a scan pattern. The optical fiber assembly may provide multiple effective light sources (e.g., via a plurality of optical fibers) that are axially staggered with respect to an optical system located between the optical fiber and the target area. The optical system may be operable to focus and/or redirect the light from the multiple light sources onto separate focal planes. A composite image may be generated based on light reflected from and/or projected onto the separate focal planes. The composite image may have an extended depth of focus or field spanning over a distance between the separate focal planes while maintaining or improving image resolution.

According to one aspect, the invention relates to a device for transporting and controlling light beams for endo-microscopic imaging without a lens on the distal side comprising a single-mode optical fibre bundle (40) on the distal side, wherein each single-mode optical fibre is intended to receive an elementary light source and to emit a light beam at a distal end; a single-mode optical fibre section (50) arranged at the distal end of the optical fibre bundle and intended to receive the light beams emitted by the single-mode optical fibres of the optical fibre bundle; an optical phase control device arranged on the side of the proximal end of the single-mode optical fibres. The optical phase control device comprises at least one spatial light modulator (30) adapted to apply a phase shift to each of the elementary beams and control means (60) for controlling the spatial light modulator allowing application of a phase shift to each of the elementary beams to form an illumination beam with a determined phase function at the distal end of the multimode optical fibre section (50).

A measurement probe is configured to be detachably connected to a bio-optical measurement apparatus and includes: an illuminating fiber configured to irradiate body tissues with illumination light; light receiving fibers configured to receive return light of the illumination light reflected and/or scattered from the body tissues; an optical element configured to transmit the illumination light and the return light and to keep distances between the body tissues and distal ends of the illuminating fiber and the light receiving fibers, constant; and a contact detecting fiber configured to receive the return light to detect contact between a distal end face of the optical element and the body tissues, and detect the return light at a detection region on the distal end face through which the illumination light and the return light pass. The detection region is located outside an illumination region of the illuminating fiber.

A plastic optical fiber for a medical device lighting decreases the cost of a lens and simplify the design of a lighting apparatus, wherein the plastic optical fiber for a medical device includes a core composed of a (co)polymer containing methyl methacrylate as a main component and is characterized by including a cladding material composed of a copolymer having a fluorine weight composition ratio of 60 to 74%, and by having a theoretical numerical aperture, NA, of 0.48 to 0.65 and, thus, the plastic optical fiber has a high numerical aperture and also has excellent translucency and flexibility.

Exemplary spectrally encoded probes are provided having forward view capabilities. These probes are configured such that the detection element comprises a plurality of light collecting components, where the distal ends at least partially surround the illumination element and the proximal ends form a linear array that is optically connected to a dispersive component.

A light therapy diagnostic device comprising a shaft, an optical waveguide disposed in a lumen of the shaft and being movable forward and backward in a longitudinal direction of the shaft, and a transparent member disposed in the lumen and located distal to the optical waveguide, wherein: the optical waveguide guides a first light and a second light; the shaft has a lateral emission window which allows the first light and the second light to be emitted toward a lateral direction and a distal emission window which allows the first light to be emitted toward a distal direction; the optical waveguide includes a core and a clad, wherein a distal end surface of the core is inclined with respect to an optical axis of the optical waveguide; the first light passes through the transparent member in a state where the optical waveguide is in contact with the transparent member.

In one embodiment, a method for a stereo endoscope includes receiving electromagnetic radiation through an inner protective window; focusing the electromagnetic radiation with a left optical component toward a left pixel array of a stereo image sensor along an optical axis of the left optical component parallel with but offset from a center axis of the left pixel array; and focusing the electromagnetic radiation with a right optical component toward a right pixel array of the stereo image sensor along an optical axis of the right optical component parallel with but offset from a center axis of the right pixel array. The left pixel array and the right pixel array are offset from the center optical axis of the stereo endoscope to provide stereo image convergence.

According to one aspect, the invention relates to a device (200) for transporting and controlling light beams comprising a light guide (40) comprising a bundle (50) of uncoupled single-mode optical fibers (F.sub.i), each single-mode optical fiber (F.sub.i) being intended to receive an elementary light beam (B.sub.1i) at a proximal end and to emit a light beam (B.sub.2i) at a distal end, said bundle of single-mode optical fibers comprising, in operation, a minimum radius of curvature corresponding to a maximum curvature of the bundle of fibers. The device (200) furthermore comprises an optical device for phase controlling, said device being arranged on the side of the proximal end of the light guide (40) and comprising at least a first spatial light modulator (30) suitable for applying a phase shift to each of the elementary beams (B.sub.1i), and a control unit (60) for controlling the first spatial light modulator, said unit being configured to apply a phase shift to each of the elementary beams (B.sub.1i) so as to form, at the distal end of the light guide, an illumination beam with a predefined phase function. According to the present description, said bundle (50) of single-mode optical fibers is twisted, and comprises a twist period (P) defined to preserve said phase function at the distal end of the light guide when the bundle of single-mode optical fibers is subjected to a curvature lower than said maximum curvature.