Patent ID: 8585587
Filing Date: 2013-11-19
Classification: A61B,G02B

Abstract:
1. An endoscope, comprising: a light source operable to generate coherent incident light; a plurality of imaging optical fibers arranged in a fiber bundle, and arranged to receive light at a proximal end of the fiber bundle and to transmit light to a distal end of the fiber bundle; and a spatial light phase modulator between the light source and the fiber bundle, the spatial light phase modulator being arranged to receive incident light from the light source and to adjust the relative phase of the incident light entering each of the plurality of imaging optical fibers, the spatial light phase modulator being operable to synthesize a tilted wavefront emerging from the distal end of the fiber bundle, and to vary the angle and direction of the synthesized wavefront and thereby scan the light, the spatial light phase modulator being operable to synthesize a curved wavefront emerging from the distal end of the fiber bundle, and to vary the degree of curvature of the synthesized wavefront and thereby adjust its focussing; means for determining the phase variation of the light transmitted by the fiber bundle by measuring or monitoring the phase variation of reflected light or fluorescence light to produce signals representative of the phase variation; and means for feeding said signals back to the spatial light phase modulator, the spatial light phase modulator being adapted to compensate for the phase variation.