Patent 7465271 was granted and assigned to Hoya on December, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A capsule endoscope, including an omnidirectional lateral view optical system allowing observation of all directions as the objective optical system and also being capable of illuminating all the image pickup range satisfactorily, is provided. On a positioning plate inside the capsule, six LEDs are arranged at even angular intervals (60 degrees) with their light emitting surfaces facing a transparent cover of the capsule. The light emitting surface of each LED is placed at a position that is a prescribed distance β inwardly apart from the interior surface of the transparent cover of the capsule.