Patent attributes
When carrying out in vivo examination of a living organism, the behavior in the interior thereof is continuously observed with clear images. Provided is an in-vivo examination apparatus 1 comprising an optical unit 4 including a light source 2 and an image acquisition device 3; and an observation head 5, which is disposed with a gap with respect to the optical unit 4 and which is fixed to a living organism A, wherein the optical unit 4 includes a first collimator optical system 7 for converting light from the light source 2 into collimated light L1 and introducing it into the observation head 5 and an image-forming optical system 9 for focusing return light from the observation head 5 to form an image at the image-acquisition device 3, and wherein the observation optical head 5 includes a second collimator optical system 15 for focusing the collimated light L1 incident from the optical unit 4 to irradiate an examination target site B in the living organism A, as well as for converting return light from the living organism into collimated light L2 and introducing it into the optical unit 4.