Image capture and video processing systems and methods for multiple viewing element endoscopes
First Claim
1. A video processing method for use in an endoscopy system, said endoscopy system having a plurality of daisy chained image sensors and a central control unit in data communication with said plurality of daisy chained image sensors, the method comprising:
- in a first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, generating video packets from images captured by a sensor array of the first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors and storing said video packets in a self-packet buffer; and
in said first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, interleaving video packets of said self-packet buffer and at least one void packet of a chained packet buffer and transmitting the interleaved video packets to another of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors;
wherein said transmitting of the interleaved packets is performed with variable bitrates that depends on a position of the image sensors in said plurality of daisy chained image sensors, and wherein a data transfer rate of an image sensor is n+1 times the data transfer rate of a previous-in-chain image sensor, where n is the number of preceding image sensors in said plurality of daisy chained image sensors.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A multiple sensor endoscope system and a video processing method, wherein the system includes an endoscope having a plurality of daisy chained image sensors and a central control unit, is described. At least one daisy-chained image sensor includes a sensor array for capturing images and generating video packets from the captured images, a video compression unit configured to compress the video packets, a self-packet buffer configured to store the video packets, a serial-to-parallel de-serializer input unit configured to convert serialized input video packets to parallel data, a chain packet buffer configured to store the video packets received from previous-in-chain image sensors, an arbitration unit configured to interleave the stored video packets, and a serial output unit configured to output serially the interleaved video packets. The central control unit is configured to de-interleave the video packets and regenerate separated images as captured by the plurality of daisy chain image sensors.
399 Citations
13 Claims
-
1. A video processing method for use in an endoscopy system, said endoscopy system having a plurality of daisy chained image sensors and a central control unit in data communication with said plurality of daisy chained image sensors, the method comprising:
-
in a first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, generating video packets from images captured by a sensor array of the first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors and storing said video packets in a self-packet buffer; and in said first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, interleaving video packets of said self-packet buffer and at least one void packet of a chained packet buffer and transmitting the interleaved video packets to another of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors; wherein said transmitting of the interleaved packets is performed with variable bitrates that depends on a position of the image sensors in said plurality of daisy chained image sensors, and wherein a data transfer rate of an image sensor is n+1 times the data transfer rate of a previous-in-chain image sensor, where n is the number of preceding image sensors in said plurality of daisy chained image sensors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A video processing method for use in an endoscopy system, said endoscopy system having a plurality of daisy chained image sensors and a central control unit in data communication with said plurality of daisy chained image sensors, the method comprising:
-
in a first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, generating video packets from images captured by a sensor array of the first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors and storing said video packets in a self-packet buffer; in said first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, interleaving video packets of said self-packet buffer and at least one void packet of a chained packet buffer and transmitting the interleaved video packets to a second of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors; in the second of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, generating video packets from images captured by a sensor array of the second of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors and storing said video packets in a self-packet buffer; in said second of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, storing in a chain packet buffer video packets received from the first of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors; and in said second of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors, interleaving video packets of said self-packet buffer and at least one of said chained packet buffer and a void packet and transmitting the interleaved video packets to a third of the plurality of daisy chained image sensors; wherein said transmitting of the interleaved packets is performed with variable bitrates that depends on a position of the image sensors in said plurality of daisy chained image sensors, and wherein a data transfer rate of an image sensor is n+1 times the data transfer rate of a previous-in-chain image sensor, where n is the number of preceding image sensors in said plurality of daisy chained image sensors. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
-
Specification