Endoscope apparatus

• US 20030040668A1
• Filed: 07/29/2002
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/03/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Optical Corporation Limited (Olympus Corporation)
• Inventors: Takaoka, Hideyuki, Ono, Katsuya, Hasegawa, Akira, Gono, Kazuhiro, Nozawa, Junichi, Kaneko, Mamoru, Miura, Naoki, Akimoto, Shunya, Imaizumi, Katsuichi
• Granted Patent: US 6,772,003 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/407
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0005 combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00096 Optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/05 characterised by the image sensor, e.g. camera, being in the distal end portion
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0638 providing two or more wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0646 with illumination filters
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/22 Stereoscopic arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 23/2407 Optical details

Abstract

A general-light observation light image can be obtained by illuminating the polarized frame sequence light or polarized white light, for example. In addition, a parallel polarized component and a vertical polarized component with respect to a polarizing direction of illuminating light, which is polarized in a specific direction are captured. Then, image data, which is a difference between both of the polarized component is calculated and is displayed in a display device. Thus, a scattered light component in a living-body tissue surface side can be extracted with good S/N, which can improve the diagnosis functionality.

Claims

1. An endoscope apparatus, comprising:

a light source device for generating general illuminating light for obtaining a general-light image and polarized image illuminating light having a plurality of wavelength bands for obtaining a polarized-light image;

an endoscope having;

a light conducting member for conducting the general illuminating light and the polarized image illuminating light,

a polarizing member for emitting polarized illuminating light, which is polarized through the light-conducting member, to a subject side; and

an image pickup device for outputting respectively a parallel image signal and a vertical image signal captured by using a light component in a polarizing direction parallel to a polarizing direction of the polarizing member and a light component in a polarizing direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the polarizing member, in light reflected by the subject side; and

an image processing device for performing image processing on at least one of the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal so that a general-light image can be displayed in a display device and for performing image processing on the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal so that a polarized-light image can be displayed in the display device.

2. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light source device sequentially generates red, green and blue light beams as the general illuminating light and the polarized image illuminating light.

3. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light source device generates white light as the general illuminating light.

4. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light source device sequentially or simultaneously generates, as the polarized image illuminating light, light in a plurality of wavelength bands, whose reflection properties vary in accordance with whether living-body tissue is normal or is affected when a subject is the living-body tissue.

5. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light in the plurality of wavelength bands is selected from between about 450 nm to 650 nm.

6. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the polarizing member includes a polarizer having a polarizing function, a polarizing beam splitter or a combination thereof.

7. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup device has two image pickup elements for creating the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal, respectively, or one image pickup element for commonly creating the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal.

8. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image pickup device has a light-detecting member and an image pickup element for creating the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal, respectively.

9. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the light detecting member includes a polarizer, a polarizing beam splitter or a combination thereof.

10. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the light detecting member conducts a light component in a direction parallel to a polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to an image pickup element for parallel image capturing and for conducting a light component in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to an image pickup element for vertical image capturing.

11. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the light-detecting member includes a first analyzer for conducting a light component in a direction parallel to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to a first image pickup element for parallel image capturing and a second analyzer for conducting a light component in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to a second image pickup element for vertical image capturing.

12. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the light detecting member is a member, which can switch a polarizing direction, which periodically changes a time for conducting a light component in a direction parallel to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to an image pickup element and a time for conducting a light component in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to the image pickup element.

13. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing device creates differential image data produced by computing a difference between image data by the parallel image capturing signal and image data by the vertical image signal.

14. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the image processing device creates the differential image data in the plurality of wavelength bands.

15. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the image processing device calculates a part satisfying a condition indicating wavelength dependency with respect to the differential image data in the plurality of wavelength bands, and the display device displays the part satisfying the condition.

16. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing device has a frame memory for temporarily storing image data by the parallel image capturing signal in the plurality of wavelength band and the image data by the vertical image signal.

17. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a mode switching device for switching mode for causing a display device to display the general-light image and polarized-light images from the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal.

18. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the image processing device switches between processing for creating the general-light image and processing for creating a polarized-light image in response to a mode switching operation on the mode switching device.

19. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the endoscope includes a body of the endoscope, and a distal end member having the polarizing member removably at a distal end of the endoscope body.

20. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the endoscope includes an optical endoscope and a television camera, which is attached to an ocular portion of the optical endoscope and has an image pickup device built-in for capturing images by using a light component in a polarizing direction perpendicular to a polarizing direction of the polarizing member and for outputting a parallel image signal and a vertical image signal, respectively.

21. An endoscope freely removably connected to a light source device for generating general illuminating light for obtaining a general-light image and polarized image illuminating light having a plurality of wavelength bands for obtaining a polarized-light image, the endoscope comprising:

a light conducting member for conducting the general illuminating light and polarized image illuminating light,

a polarizing member for emitting polarized illuminating light, which is polarized through the light-conducting member, to a subject side; and

an image pickup device for outputting respectively a parallel image signal and a vertical image signal captured by using a light component in a polarizing direction parallel to a polarizing direction by the polarizing member and a light component in a polarizing direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction by the polarizing member, in light reflected by the subject side,

wherein the endoscope is freely removably connected to an image processing device for performing on at least one of the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal so that a general-light image can be displayed in a display device, and for performing image processing on the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal so that a polarized-light image can be displayed in the display device.

22. The endoscope according to claim 21, wherein the polarizing member includes a polarizer having a polarizing function, a polarizing beam splitter or a combination thereof.

23. The endoscope according to claim 21, wherein the image pickup device has two image pickup elements for creating the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal, respectively, or one image pickup element for commonly creating the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal.

24. The endoscope according to claim 21, wherein the image pickup device has a light-detecting member and an image pickup element for creating the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal, respectively.

25. The endoscope according to claim 24, wherein the polarizing member includes a polarizer having a polarizing function, a polarizing beam splitter or a combination thereof.

26. The endoscope according to claim 24, wherein the light-detecting member conducts a light component in a direction parallel to a polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to an image pickup element for parallel image capturing and for conducting a light component in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to an image pickup element for vertical image capturing.

27. The endoscope according to claim 24, wherein the light-detecting member includes a first analyzer for conducting a light component in a direction parallel to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to a first image pickup element for parallel image capturing and a second analyzer for conducting a light component in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to a second image pickup element for vertical image capturing.

28. The endoscope according to claim 24, wherein the light detecting member is a member, which can switch a polarizing direction, which periodically changes a time for conducting a light component in a direction parallel to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to an image pickup element and a time for conducting a light component in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction of the polarized illuminating light to the image pickup element.

29. An image processing device freely removably connected to an endoscope including an image pickup device for outputting a parallel image signal and a vertical image signal captured by using a light component in a polarizing direction parallel to a polarizing direction by the polarizing member and a light component in a polarizing direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction by the polarizing member, respectively, in light reflected by a subject side, the image processing device performing on at least one of the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal so that a general-light image can be displayed in a display device, and for performing image processing on the parallel image signal and the vertical image signal so that a polarized-light image can be displayed in the display device.

30. The image processing device according to claim 29, which creates differential image data produced by computing a difference between image data by the parallel image capturing signal and image data by the vertical image signal.