[Optics with natural appearing added illumination].

Today's endoscopes use a central frontal illumination which creates huge contrast, no visible shadows, and gives an unnaturally flat impression. In the SIMIC project, a new type of optics has been developed that uses additional illumination fibres ending 3 mm behind the front lens. This gives a more natural and spatial impression of the body cavity, causes shadows that are an improvement when approaching tissue with an instrument, reduces blooming in the foreground, and improves detail reproduction in the background.