Appeal No. 98-1030
Application 08/424,115
rejection of claims 1 through 8, all of the claims pending in
the application. We reverse.
The invention relates to an endoscope having a distal end
part including side by side viewing and illumination windows,
a window glass attached to and covering the viewing window,
and a continuous transparent cover overlying both windows.
According to the appellants' specification, the visual images
produced by prior art endoscopes of this type are marred by
the inclusion of the virtual image of the outer edge portion
of the window glass. In the appellants' device, this problem
is overcome by designing the window glass such that the
virtual image of its outer edge portion lies outside the
visual field of the endoscope's optical system.
Claim 1 is illustrative of the subject matter on appeal
and reads as follows:
1. A distal end part of an endoscope, comprising:
a viewing window for introducing light from an object
into an objective optical system having a visual field for
forming an observed image;
an illumination window disposed in a side by side
relationship with said viewing window for illuminating said
visual field of said objective optical system;
2
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