There is provided an endoscope including a main body including a coupler to which a cable is attached, a tubular section having a tubular form, a reflector having a reflection surface that reflects light introduced from the coupler to inside of the main body and introduces the light to inside of the tubular section, a first optical system that transmits the light introduced by the reflector to the inside of the tubular section to a front-end portion of the tubular section and irradiates a subject with the light from the front-end portion, and a second optical system that transmits reflected light of the subject from the front-end portion of the tubular section to the main body side. The coupler is provided to be rotatable in the main body around a central axis of the tubular section with respect to another portion. The cable is coupled to a light source.

An apparatus for measuring a scanning pattern of an optical scanning apparatus can easily reduce the effect of stray light and improve the measurement accuracy of the scanning pattern. An apparatus for measuring a scanning pattern of an optical scanning apparatus (100), which scans an object being illuminated with illumination light and generates a display image of the object being illuminated, includes a screen (11) scanned by the illumination light and an optical position detector (12) that detects the position of an irradiation spot of the illumination light on the screen (11). The apparatus for measuring a scanning pattern sequentially detects a position of the irradiation spot at predetermined time points with the optical position detector (12) during scanning of the screen (11) to measure the scanning pattern of the illumination light.

An apparatus for measuring a scanning pattern of an optical scanning apparatus can easily reduce the effect of stray light and improve the measurement accuracy of the scanning pattern. An apparatus for measuring a scanning pattern of an optical scanning apparatus (100), which scans an object being illuminated with illumination light and generates a display image of the object being illuminated, includes a screen (11) scanned by the illumination light and an optical position detector (12) that detects the position of an irradiation spot of the illumination light on the screen (11). The apparatus for measuring a scanning pattern sequentially detects a position of the irradiation spot at predetermined time points with the optical position detector (12) during scanning of the screen (11) to measure the scanning pattern of the illumination light.

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.

Exemplary apparatus for method for forming at least one spectral encoding endoscopy configuration. For example, it is possible to modify a spacer configuration and an lens optics configuration to have respective predetermined lengths, and also to modify a dispersive optics configuration to have a further predetermined length. Further, the modified spacer and modified lens optics configurations can be attached to one another to form a combined spacer-lens optics configuration. The modified dispersive optics configuration can be attached to a substrate to form to form a grating substrate configuration. Additionally, the combined spacer-lens optics configuration can be connected to an optical fiber, and the modified attached dispersed optics configuration can be connected to the modified attached lens optics configuration to form the spectral encoding endoscopy configuration(s) which can extends along a particular axis. The dispersive optics configuration can be modified to be at a predetermined angle with respect to the particular axis.

Exemplary apparatus for method for forming at least one spectral encoding endoscopy configuration. For example, it is possible to modify a spacer configuration and an lens optics configuration to have respective predetermined lengths, and also to modify a dispersive optics configuration to have a further predetermined length. Further, the modified spacer and modified lens optics configurations can be attached to one another to form a combined spacer-lens optics configuration. The modified dispersive optics configuration can be attached to a substrate to form to form a grating substrate configuration. Additionally, the combined spacer-lens optics configuration can be connected to an optical fiber, and the modified attached dispersed optics configuration can be connected to the modified attached lens optics configuration to form the spectral encoding endoscopy configuration(s) which can extends along a particular axis. The dispersive optics configuration can be modified to be at a predetermined angle with respect to the particular axis.

According to one aspect, the invention concerns a device for transporting and controlling light pulses for lensless endo-microscopic imaging and comprises: a bundle of N monomode optical fibers (F.sub.1) arranged in a given pattern, each monomode optical fiber being characterized by a relative group delay value (Ax) defined relative to the travel time of a pulse propagating in a reference monomode optical fiber (F.sub.0) of the bundle of fibers (40), an optical device for controlling group velocity (50) comprising a given number M of waveplates (P.sub.j) characterized by a given delay (8t.sub.j); a first spatial light modulator (51) suitable for forming from an incident light beam a number N of elementary light beams (B.sub.i) each of which is intended to enter into one of said optical fibers, each elementary beam being intended to pass into a given waveplate such that the sum of the delay introduced by said waveplate and the relative group delay of the optical fiber intended to receive said elementary light beam is minimal in absolute value; a second spatial light modulator (52) suitable for deviating each of the N elementary light beams such that each elementary light beam penetrates into the corresponding optical fiber perpendicularly to the entrance face of the optical fiber.

A medical tool includes: a tool main unit configured to be driven in response to a power supply; a first power supply configured to be removable from the tool main unit; and a second power supply having a smaller power capacity than the first power supply, and configured to be charged by the first power supply. The tool main unit is configured to be driven by receiving power supply from one of the first power supply and the second power supply.

A method for transmitting information includes deriving a transfer function that relates a first image formed over a first area on an end face (38) of a multimode optical fiber (40) and a second image formed over a second area extending over a side (42) of the multimode optical fiber. Optical information is input to the multimode optical fiber through one of the first and second areas. Following transmission of the optical information through the multimode optical fiber, the optical information that is output from the other of the first and second areas is detected and decoded using the transfer function.

A light guide unit includes a light guide member and a protection member surrounding the light guide member. The light guide member includes an optical fiber having an outer diameter. The protection member is formed in a network structure by knitting a metal member having a flat cross-sectional shape by bending the metal member in a direction in which the thickness of the metal material is thin, and a gap smaller than the outer diameter is formed along the axial direction.