Medical observation device and control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10992852-B2
Application number	US-201716333235-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2017
Priority date	Dec 1, 2016
Publication date	Apr 27, 2021
Grant date	Apr 27, 2021

Abstract

[Solution] Provided is a medical observation device including: an imaging optical system including an objective optical system that condenses light from a subject and two image-forming optical systems which have optical axes different from an optical axis of the objective optical system and which cause light condensed by the objective optical system to form an image; and a control unit configured to cause an autofocus operation to be executed by causing a focusing optical member included in the objective optical system to move.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A medical observation device comprising:
an imaging optical system including an objective optical system that condenses light from a subject and two image-forming optical systems which have optical axes different from an optical axis of the objective optical system and which cause light condensed by the objective optical system to form an image; and
control circuitry configured to cause an autofocus operation to be executed by causing a focusing optical member included in the objective optical system to move and cause a zoom operation to be executed by causing a zooming optical member included in the two image-forming optical systems to move, wherein
the control circuitry specifies an image movement direction and an image movement amount of a subject image caused by the movement of the focusing optical member on a basis of (1) information related to the zoom operation including a focal length of the two image-forming optical systems or a magnification of the two image-forming optical systems and (2) a position or a movement amount of the moved focusing optical member, and specifies a ranging region for the autofocus operation on a basis of the specified image movement direction and the specified image movement amount, and
the control circuitry specifies the image movement amount on a basis of data associating information related to the zoom operation with the image movement direction and the image movement amount.

2. The medical observation device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
imaging signal processing circuitry configured to execute signal processing on a basis of the image movement direction or the image movement amount.

3. The medical observation device according to claim 1 , wherein the data is a data table associating the information related to the zoom operation with the image movement direction and the image movement amount in a case of moving the focusing optical member in a predetermined direction by a predetermined amount.

4. The medical observation device according to claim 1 , wherein the data is formula.

5. A control method, executed by a processor, comprising:
causing an autofocus operation to be executed by causing a focusing optical member included in an objective optical system to move and causing a zoom operation to be executed by causing a zooming optical member included in the two image-forming optical systems to move, in an imaging optical system including the objective optical system that condenses light from a subject and two image-forming optical systems which have optical axes different from an optical axis of the objective optical system and which cause light condensed by the objective optical system to form an image, wherein
an image movement direction and an image movement amount of a subject image caused by the movement of the focusing optical member are specified on a basis of (1) information related to the zoom operation including a focal length of the two image-forming optical systems or a magnification of the two image-forming optical systems and (2) a position or a movement amount of the moved focusing optical member, and a ranging region for the autofocus operation is specified on a basis of the specified image movement direction and the specified image movement amount, and
the image movement amount is specified on a basis of data associating information related to the zoom operation with the image movement direction and the image movement amount in a case of moving the focusing optical member in a predetermined direction by a predetermined amount.

6. The control method according to claim 5 , wherein the data is a data table associating the information related to the zoom operation with the image movement direction and the image movement amount in a case of moving the focusing optical member in a predetermined direction by a predetermined amount.

7. The control method according to claim 5 , wherein the data is formula.

Assignees

• Sony Corp
• Sony Olympus Medical Solutions Inc

Inventors

• Hirano Hirotaka
• Ibuka Tatsuya
• Yamamoto Takahiro

Classifications

• H04N23/959

  by adjusting depth of field during image capture, e.g. maximising or setting range based on scene characteristics · CPC title

• H04N23/60

  Control of cameras or camera modules · CPC title

• H04N23/69

  Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming · CPC title

• A61B1/000095 Primary

  for image enhancement · CPC title

• H04N23/958

  for extended depth of field imaging · CPC title