Optical image transmitting apparatus

Abstract

Abstract 1,268,855. Surgical microscopes. NIPPON SELFOC K.K. 18 Aug., 1969 [24 Aug., 1968; 2 Aug., 1968; 5 Sept., 1968], No. 41180/69. Heading A5R. [Also in Division G2] An optical fibre having a refractive index variation in a transverse plane in accordance with the formula n=n 0 (1-ar<SP>2</SP>), where n 0 and n are the values at the axis and at a distance r from the axis and where "a" is a positive constant, is used as an objective lens in a microscope. The fibre may be very narrow and flexible (as shown) and, with a conventional eyepiece 32, provides a microscope which allows examination over a wide surface area of an irregular shaped object, and even internal examination of narrow holes, without moving the eyes. If two such fibre lenses are used in conjunction with eyepieces, stereoscopic microscopes may be formed with either rigid objective heads (Figs. 2, 3, not shown) or flexible objective heads (Fig. 4) and in both cases the focal lengths may be as little as 30 microns. A stereoscopic microscope (Fig. 5, not shown) may also provide object illumination by including a fibre optic light guide (19) and source (17) as well as fibre "lenses" (18, 18a), and due to the small cross-sections of the fibres an objective probe may be made small enough (Fig. 8, not shown) to fit inside an injection needle which is to be inserted into the human body.

Inventors

• 👤 Tsuneshige Miyauchi
• 👤 Jiro Hirano
• 👤 Atsufumi Ueki
• 👤 Ryuji Tatsumi
• 👤 Kunihiko Mukai
• 👤 Shogo Yoshikawa

Bibliographic Details