Patent ID: 7427263

Claim:
A method for operating a variable direction of view endoscope, the method comprising: providing an endoscope with a view controlling device that moves a variable view vector of the endoscope between a plurality of discrete view vector positions relative to the endoscope; displaying a set of the predefined, discrete view vector positions on a user interface; supplying a command via the user interface that causes the view controlling device to move the view vector to a first one of the discrete view vector positions displayed on the user interface; supplying a command via the user interface that causes the view controlling device to move the view vector directly from the first discrete view vector position to a second one of the discrete view vector positions displayed on the user interface; selecting particular discrete view vector positions from among the view vector positions displayed on the user interface; wherein the step of selecting particular discrete view vector positions includes selecting the set of discrete view vector positions from among a plurality of predefined sets of discrete view vector positions.