Design of the new rigid endoscope distortion measurement system

Endoscopic imaging quality affects industrial safety and medical security. Rigid endoscope distortion is of great signification as one of optical parameters to evaluate the imaging quality. This paper introduces a new method of rigid endoscope distortion measurement, which is different from the common methods with low accuracy and fussy operation. It contains a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) to display the target, a CCD to obtain the images with distortion, and a computer to process the images. The LCD is employed instead of common white screen. The autonomous control system of LCD makes it showing the test target designed for distortion, and its parameter is known. LCD control system can change the test target to satisfy the different demand for accuracy, which avoids replacing target frequently. The test system also contains a CCD to acquire images in the exit pupil position of rigid endoscope. Rigid endoscope distortion is regarded as centrosymmetric, and the MATLAB software automatically measures it by processing the images from CCD. The MATLAB software compares target images with that without distortion on LCD and calculates the results. Relative distortion is obtained at different field of view (FOV) radius. The computer plots the curve of relative distortion, abscissa means radius of FOV, ordinate means relative distortion. The industry standard shows that, the distortion at 70% field of view is pointed on the curve, which can be taken as an evaluation standard. This new measuring method achieves advantages of high precision, high degree of intelligence, excellent repeatability and gets calculation results quickly.