Abstract: An in situ holographic technique, involving the use of a flexible miniaturized endoscope (diameter less than 1 mm) coupled to a CCD camera, to record the hologram, has been developed for medical applications. The hologram is formed, by reflection, on the tip of a multimode fiber bundle (MMB), sampled, and then treated electronically. The image is reconstructed numerically, providing more flexibility to the holographic process. Reconstructed images show the capability of the microendoscopic system to restore 3D informations of the observed scene. The limitations of the holographic approach with the microendoscope have been evaluated and discussed in terms of the resolution limit. In particular, the low frequency sampling of the hologram through the MMB is not a limiting factor for the range of observation distance investigated (4 - 10 mm). A good accordance between the experimental results and the theoretical predictions was found by comparing the cut-off frequency obtained. Our results show that, for the considered observation distances, objects of a few micrometers can be clearly identified. The different sources of noise are analyzed and their influence on the quality of the reconstructed image have been quantified.!13
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