arranged in a matrix form in the present embodiment the cmos image sensor 1732 has 1024 u00d7 1280 light receiving elements cmos cells 1024 in a direction in which the linear laser light extends and 1280 in a direction orthogonal thereto moreover the cmos image sensor 1732 has a rolling shutter function the rolling shutter function is a method in which only the light receiving elements arranged in one or more than one row or column are caused to simultaneously receive light and this row wise or column wise light reception is successively performed in the direction of the column or in the direction of the row for example in fig3 the light reception by the light receiving elements arranged in the first column light receiving elements enhanced by the thick frame is simultaneously performed after this light reception is finished light reception is successively performed in the second third and succeeding columns fig4 is a block diagram showing a control system of the optical probe 17 according to the present embodiment the control circuit 174 includes a cpu 1741 a program storage 1742 connected to the cpu 1741 a work memory 1743 and a multivalued image memory 1744 the image information obtained by the cmos image sensor 1732 is inputted to the cpu 1741 through the multivalued.