Switchable Dot Projection Module for 3D Flexible Endoscopes

Abstract

This work reports switchable dot projection module for 3D flexible endoscopes. The dot projector is composed of the switchable fiber-bundle and diffractive optical elements with double-sided microlens arrays with rotational offset to generate diffractive dot array patterns and uniform illumination at the same time. The overall diameter of the packaged dot projector is small and flexible enough to replace one of the illumination channels in conventional 2D endoscopes to make the structured-light based 3D surface imaging possible.