An endoscope apparatus includes: an endoscope including an insertion portion with flexibility inserted into paranasal sinus of a subject and capable of emitting illuminating light from a distal end of the insertion portion toward the subject inside of the paranasal sinus; and an illumination mechanism configured to emit the illuminating light from the endoscope to the subject in a predetermined direction of an irradiation range of the illuminating light in a mode different from other directions.

An apparatus may include an optical fiber having an angled grating aligned along a plane non-normal to a longitudinal axis of a distal end portion of the optical fiber. The angled grating may be configured to redirect a first laser energy propagated within the optical fiber and incident on the angled grating to a direction offset from the longitudinal axis. The apparatus may also include a metallic cap coupled to the optical fiber. The metallic cap may have an inner surface configured to redirect a second laser energy incident on the inner surface along the direction offset from the longitudinal axis. The second laser energy being different than the first laser energy.

An optical endoluminal far-field microscopic imaging catheter comprises a light generating system, a first light delivery conduit for propagating light generated by the light generating system and a light distributor configured to redirect light propagated by the delivery conduit into a direction of an object to be imaged. A discriminator is configured for capturing light reflected from the object incident on a window of the discriminator from a particular direction and transmitting only the light captured from the particular direction to a second light delivery conduit. A drive mechanism is configured to sweep the window through a plurality of directions in a predictable pattern for matching each light capture event in the window with a direction of the window during the event. An analyzer matches the direction of the window with an associated light capture event and generate a visible image based on a mosaic of the captured light.

A blade inspection apparatus has a borescope and a PC. The borescope has a distance sensor for detecting an insertion length when an insertion section of the borescope is inserted through a hole provided in a casing in which a rotor of an engine is housed, an acceleration sensor for detecting an attitude of the insertion section, and distance sensors for detecting two distances from the insertion section to two stator vanes on a stator. The PC compares the attitude and two distances detected in the borescope with the attitude and two distances relating to an inspection image stored in a HDD. When a match occurs therebetween, the PC outputs match information.

To provide an image pickup unit that can prevent axis deviation of a movable lens barrel and obtain high-quality picked-up image, a stopper member is positioned and fixed in a state in which the stopper member is abutted against an outer circumferential surface of a rear group lens barrel, movement of a movable lens barrel to a retraction side along a photographing optical axis is restricted by contact of a stopper section of the stopper member and an operation rod, and a movable lens is held in a position for realizing a second focal length.

In a minimally invasive surgical system, an image capture unit includes a prism assembly and sensor assembly. The prism assembly includes a beam splitter, while the sensor assembly includes coplanar image capture sensors. Each of the coplanar image capture sensors has a common front end optical structure, e.g., the optical structure distal to the image capture unit is the same for each of the sensors. A controller enhances images acquired by the coplanar image capture sensors. The enhanced images may include (a) visible images with enhanced feature definition, in which a particular feature in the scene is emphasized to the operator of minimally invasive surgical system; (b) images having increased image apparent resolution; (c) images having increased dynamic range; (d) images displayed in a way based on a pixel color component vector having three or more color components; and (e) images having extended depth of field.

Systems, methods, and devices for fluorescence imaging with a minimal area image sensor are disclosed. A system includes an emitter for emitting pulses of electromagnetic radiation and an image sensor comprising a pixel array for sensing reflected electromagnetic radiation, wherein the pixel array comprises active pixels and optical black pixels. The system includes a black clamp circuit providing offset control for data generated by the pixel array and a controller comprising a processor in electrical communication with the image sensor and the emitter. The system is such that at least a portion of the pulses of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the emitter comprises electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength from about 795 nm to about 815 nm.

An endoscope includes: an image pickup portion including an image pickup device; an optical axis bending optical system; an operation input portion which pivots; an operation conversion portion that resolves an input of the operation input portion and generate a plurality of outputs; and an operation transmission portion that transmits the outputs of the operation conversion portion to a plurality of movable portions. The optical axis bending optical system includes a first prism rotatably supported around a second optical axis, and a second prism rotatably supported around a third optical axis. The operation transmission portion includes: an image pickup portion interlocking portion rotatably supporting the image pickup portion; and a prism rotation transmission portion including a first transmission member that rotates the first prism around the second optical axis, and a second transmission member that rotates the second prism around the third optical axis integrally with the first prism.

An object of the invention is to provide an endoscope capable of continuously grasping a direction which a distal end portion of an endoscope faces even when a bending operation is performed. The endoscope of the invention is provided with: a first image pickup optical system provided at a distal end of an insertion portion; a bending portion provided in a vicinity of a distal end portion of the insertion portion and configured to be bendingly operated by a proximal side operation; and a second image pickup optical system disposed on the bending portion and configured so that the distal end of the insertion portion is included within a field-of-view angle.

A distal end component includes: a transparent resin outer layer portion that is made of a transparent first resin member and configures a surface of a distal end portion; an internal structure portion that is made of a second resin member and is provided in tight contact with an inner surface of the transparent resin outer layer portion; a plurality of component fixing holes provided in the internal structure portion; and lens sections provided in the transparent resin outer layer portion, the lens sections respectively facing distal end surfaces of illumination optical sections and a distal end surface of an observation optical section