A probe system and a method are provided. The probe system includes an emitter unit, a pattern generation system, and an intensity modulator. The emitter unit is for emitting light. The pattern generation system is for projecting at least one reference structured-light pattern onto an object surface to obtain at least one reference projected pattern, and including a mirror scanning unit for reflecting the light to a plurality of directions. The intensity modulator is for modulating intensity of the light according to the at least one reference projected pattern to provide modulated light to the mirror scanning unit to reflect the modulated light to the plurality of directions to project at least one modulated structured-light pattern onto the object surface to obtain at least one modulated projected pattern.

A measurement processing device includes an imaging unit, an image acquisition unit, a display unit, a measurement point display control unit, a corresponding-point calculation unit, a corresponding-point image generation unit, and a corresponding-point image display control unit. The measurement point display control unit causes a measurement point indicating a measurement position designated by a user to be displayed on a first image. The corresponding-point image generation unit generates a corresponding-point image that includes the corresponding point calculated by the corresponding-point calculation unit and a region in the vicinity of the corresponding point in the second image and is constituted of all or a part of the second image. The corresponding-point image display control unit causes the corresponding-point image to be displayed so that a straight line passing through the measurement point and the corresponding point is orthogonal to the parallax direction on a display screen.

An integrated image sensor for capturing a mixed structured-light image and regular image using an integrated image sensor are disclosed. The integrated image sensor comprises a pixel array, one or more output circuits, one or more analog-to-digital converters, and one or more timing and control circuits. The timing and control circuits are arranged to perform a set of actions including capturing a regular image and a structured-light image. According to the present invention, the structured-light image captured before or after the regular image is used to derive depth or shape information for the regular image. An endoscope based on the above integrated image sensor is also disclosed. The endoscope may comprises a capsule housing adapted to be swallowed, where the components of integrated image sensor, a structured light source and anon-structured light source are enclosed and sealed in the capsule housing.

A stereo endoscope including: a shaft; and an objective lens including: a distal objective lens portion, where beam paths of right and left partial images extend through common optical components; a proximal objective lens portion, where the beam paths of the right and left partial images extend through separate optical components; and a transition portion, where the beam paths of the right and left partial images, which emerge from the distal objective lens portion at an angle to one another, are aligned parallel to one another; the transition portion comprises a lateral spreading arrangement including optical components for increasing a distance between the beam paths of the right and left partial images; and the lateral spreading arrangement is configured to laterally spread the beam paths of the right and left partial images asymmetrically in relation to an optical axis of the distal objective lens portion.

An image relaying device comprises a shaft, an objective lens at a distal end of the shaft, an optically transparent window region in a proximal end region of the image relaying device, an optical system in the shaft, the optical system relaying an image produced by the objective lens to the proximal end region in a way that the relayed image can be captured through the window region. The optical system's optical axis at the window region is orthogonal or substantially orthogonal to the optical system's optical axis in the shaft. An optical instrument makes use of a plurality of these image relaying devices and a corresponding plurality of image sensors where the optical path length of each image relaying device may be independently adjusted to correct for optical inconsistencies in the elements of each relaying device.

The disclosed technology is directed to an endoscopic image capturing device. The image capturing device comprises a first objective lens frame a first lens compartment housing therein first optical members of a first objective optical system and a second lens compartment housing therein second optical members of a second objective optical system that is positioned contiguously with the first objective optical system. A second objective lens frame is disposed for sliding movement with respect to the first objective lens frame in optical axis directions. An image capturing frame is disposed for sliding movement with respect to the second objective lens frame in the optical axis directions and housing therein an image capturing device that has an image capturing surface onto which first and second optical images that has passed through the first and second objective optical systems are focused. A positioning member is disposed in the objective optical system hole.

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.

An endoscope apparatus includes two optical path forming optical systems, an image forming optical system, two convex power sections including a convex section, provided in the two optical path forming optical systems, and disposed so as to emit emitted light from the two optical path forming optical systems to the image forming optical system, and an aperture member including two openings configured to transmit the light emitted from the two convex power sections. The centers of the two openings are respectively located on the optical axis side of the image forming optical system with respect to the two optical axes of the two optical path forming optical systems.

An image processing apparatus for an endoscope includes an image acquisition circuit configured to acquire an image captured by using the endoscope, an interference area setting circuit configured to set, on the image, an interference area having a different characteristic from an observation target in the image, and an interference area corrector configured to perform correction on the image, the correction including a reduction in luminance of the interference area. The interference area setting circuit includes an interference candidate area extractor configured to extract at least one interference candidate area based on the different characteristic from the observation target, and an interference area selector configured to select the interference area from the at least one interference candidate area based on luminance distribution in the at least one interference candidate area.

A three-dimensional endoscope system includes: an imaging unit configured to capture a first image and a second image having parallax with respect to each other; and an image generation unit configured to generate a display image for stereoscopic viewing by performing image processing on the first image and the second image captured by the imaging unit, wherein the image generation unit generates the display image based on the first image and a third image obtained by replacing a part of the second image with a part of the first image at a corresponding position.