ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,357,165, issued on July 15, was assigned to JAPAN LIFELINE Co. LTD. (Tokyo).
"Endoscope" was invented by Yuki Kodama (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An object is to provide an endoscope by which it is possible to reuse a camera including an expensive solid-state image sensor. An endoscope of the present invention includes a shaft to be inserted into a body, a handle mounted on a proximal end side of the shaft and including a grip and operation knobs, and a camera including a cable tube and a camera head equipped with an image sensor. The camera is separable from the handle and the shaft. The shaft is formed with a camera channel in...