Editor's Summary
19 October 2006
The narrow view
Microendoscopy, using devices a millimetre or so in diameter, is an accepted technique in ophthalmics, tumour diagnosis and other medical specialities. Submillimetre-diameter devices have been used in some clinical applications but have not been widely adopted because of their rigidity and poor image quality. A new type of endoscope has now been developed that can transmit video-rate, three-dimensional images from flexible probes that are the diameter of a single optical fibre, at 80–250 
m, comparable in size to a human hair.
Brief Communications: Three-dimensional miniature endoscopy
A single optical fibre acts as a flexible probe to transmit a superior image of an internal landscape.
D. Yelin, I. Rizvi, W. M. White, J. T. Motz, T. Hasan, B. E. Bouma & G. J. Tearney
doi:10.1038/443765a
