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.

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.

An endoscope system includes an image pickup section that picks up, light included in return light generated according to radiation of excitation light, and reference light, the return light including the fluorescence, light in a first wavelength band, and light in a second wavelength band; an observation image generation section that generates an observation image using first through third image signals obtained by picking up the return light; and a control section that controls the observation image generation section such that the observation image is generated, by causing the first image signal to be assigned to a green component, and by causing one image signal having a relatively large signal value, between the second image signal and the third image signal, to be assigned to a red component and another image signal having a relatively small signal value to be assigned to a blue component and the green component.

An endoscope apparatus includes: an endoscope connector; a first optical connector extended from a plug section; first insertion openings of a receptacle section into which the first optical connector is inserted; second insertion openings of the receptacle section into which a second optical connector is inserted; a wrong insertion preventing member that is partially located in the second insertion openings, and is moved, in conjunction with insertion of the first optical connector into the first insertion openings, to a retracted position at which the second optical connector is insertable into the second insertion openings; and a contact member that comes into contact with the wrong insertion preventing member when the first optical connector is inserted into the second insertion openings.

Embodiments of the invention include an apparatus including at least one illumination source configured to emit illumination energy and an illumination control system to receive the illumination energy. The illumination control system is configured to control the illumination energy to output a sequence of different illumination wavelengths using the illumination energy. The apparatus also includes a plurality of optical fibers connected to the illumination control system and configured to sequentially output the different illumination wavelengths. Each optical fiber is configured to transmit a different illumination wavelength of the sequence to output the sequence of different illumination wavelengths from the optical fibers toward an object. The apparatus further includes an image capture device including a plurality of pixels, and each pixel of the image capture device is configured to detect the illumination energy associated with each of the plurality of different illumination wavelengths reflected from the object.

An endoscope system includes an image acquisition section, an attention area setting section, and a dimming control section. The image acquisition section acquires a captured image that includes an object image. The attention area setting section sets an attention area within the captured image based on information from the endoscope system. The dimming control section performs a dimming control process that controls the intensity of illumination light based on the attention area set by the attention area setting section.

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.

An imaging device includes a light separator that separates light into light bands, and imaging elements that each receives one of the light bands and generates a corresponding signal. Each of the imaging elements has a pixel size of at most 2.5 μm by 2.5 μm. A registration error among the imaging elements is equal to or less than a threshold determined according to the pixel size.

Infrared imaging devices are provided which are configured to implement side-scan infrared imaging for, e.g., medical applications. For example, an imaging device includes a ring-shaped detector element comprising a circular array of infrared detectors configured to detect thermal infrared radiation, and a focusing element configured to focus incident infrared radiation towards the circular array of infrared detectors. The imaging device can be an ingestible imaging device (e.g., swallowable camera) or the imaging device can be implemented as part of an endoscope device, for example.