Patent ID: 6402685
Filing Date: 2002-06-11
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
A field conversion system for rigid endoscopes, comprising:a rigid endoscope inserted into an object to be observed, from one end in a longitudinal direction thereof to form an optical image of said object; and an imaging device connected to a remaining end of said rigid endoscope; said imaging device including: an imaging optical system for changing a magnification of said optical image to form a resultant image; and an image sensor placed at a position of an imaging plane produced by said imaging optical system, a part or a whole of said imaging optical system, or said image sensor being moved in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis, thereby carrying out a field conversion. wherein a time-division shutter mechanism is placed close to a pupil position inside said imaging optical system so that two light beams at different positions in a pupil are switched time-dividedly and transmitted and said image sensor picks up time-dividedly left and right images with parallax.