Patent ID: 8149270

Claim:
Stereoscopic endoscope comprising: an elongated endoscopic housing; an interpupilar distance (IPD) transformer located at a distal end of said elongated endoscopic housing and behind an object, said IPD transformer receiving light beams respective of a right view and a left view of said object, at a substantially large IPD; an objective located behind said IPD transformer, said objective receiving said light beams from said IPD transformer, said objective projecting a distal right view image and a distal left view image of said object on a distal image plane, said distal image plane being located in the vicinity of said distal end; an optical relay assembly array located behind said objective, said objective optically coupled with said optical relay assembly array, said optical relay assembly array comprising a plurality of serially located optical relay assemblies, said optical relay assemblies sequentially relaying said distal right view image and said distal left view image, a proximal optical relay assembly of said optical relay assembly array located at a proximal end of said elongated endoscopic housing, projecting a relayed right view image and a relayed left view image of said object, on a proximal image plane located at said proximal end; a light sensor array located behind said optical relay assembly array, said light sensor array including a plurality of light sensors; a lenticular lens layer located in front of said light sensor array, said lenticular lens layer including a plurality of lenticular elements, each of said lenticular elements being located in front of a selected two-dimensional group of said light sensors; and an optical assembly located in front of said lenticular lens layer, said optical assembly transmitting a relayed right view light beam according to said relayed right view image, and a relayed left view light beam according to said relayed left view image, to a respective one of said lenticular elements, said respective lenticular element transmitting said relayed right view light beam and said relayed left view light beam, to respective ones of said selected group of said light sensors, to enable respective ones of said selected group of said light sensors, to produce a sensor output respective of said relayed right view light beam and said relayed left view light beam.