Method and apparatus for displaying fluorescence images and method and apparatus for acquiring endoscope images
First Claim
1. A method of displaying a fluorescence image, wherein operation processing is performed on a first fluorescence image having been obtained by detecting fluorescence components of fluorescence having been produced from living body tissues exposed to excitation light, which fluorescence components have wavelengths falling within a specific wavelength region, and at least either one of a second fluorescence image having been obtained by detecting fluorescence components of the fluorescence, which fluorescence components have wavelengths falling within a wavelength region different from the specific wavelength region, and a reflected reference light image having been obtained by detecting reflected reference light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when reference light is irradiated to the living body tissues, a tissue condition image, which represents a tissue condition of the living body tissues and which has been compensated for a distance to the living body tissues, is formed with the operation processing, and the thus formed tissue condition image is displayed, the method comprising the steps of:
- i) making a judgment as to whether each of image areas embedded in the tissue condition image is an abnormal light affected area, which has been affected by light having an intensity equal to at least a specified value, or a normal light detection area, which has been formed with light having an intensity lower than the specified value, the judgment being made in accordance with at least one image, which is among the first fluorescence image, the second fluorescence image, and the reflected reference light image, and ii) displaying the abnormal light affected area in a form different from the normal light detection area.
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Abstract
Operation processing is performed on a first fluorescence image and at least either one of a second fluorescence image and a reflected reference light image to form a tissue condition image, which represents a tissue condition of living body tissues and has been compensated for a distance to the living body tissues. According to at least one of the three images, a judgment is made as to whether each image area in the tissue condition image is an abnormal light affected area or a normal light detection area. The abnormal light affected area is displayed in a form different from the normal light detection area.
71 Citations
32 Claims
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1. A method of displaying a fluorescence image, wherein operation processing is performed on a first fluorescence image having been obtained by detecting fluorescence components of fluorescence having been produced from living body tissues exposed to excitation light, which fluorescence components have wavelengths falling within a specific wavelength region, and at least either one of a second fluorescence image having been obtained by detecting fluorescence components of the fluorescence, which fluorescence components have wavelengths falling within a wavelength region different from the specific wavelength region, and a reflected reference light image having been obtained by detecting reflected reference light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when reference light is irradiated to the living body tissues, a tissue condition image, which represents a tissue condition of the living body tissues and which has been compensated for a distance to the living body tissues, is formed with the operation processing, and the thus formed tissue condition image is displayed, the method comprising the steps of:
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i) making a judgment as to whether each of image areas embedded in the tissue condition image is an abnormal light affected area, which has been affected by light having an intensity equal to at least a specified value, or a normal light detection area, which has been formed with light having an intensity lower than the specified value, the judgment being made in accordance with at least one image, which is among the first fluorescence image, the second fluorescence image, and the reflected reference light image, and ii) displaying the abnormal light affected area in a form different from the normal light detection area.
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2. An apparatus for displaying a fluorescence image, wherein operation processing is performed on a first fluorescence image having been obtained by detecting fluorescence components of fluorescence having been produced from living body tissues exposed to excitation light, which fluorescence components have wavelengths falling within a specific wavelength region, and at least either one of a second fluorescence image having been obtained by detecting fluorescence components of the fluorescence, which fluorescence components have wavelengths falling within a wavelength region different from the specific wavelength region, and a reflected reference light image having been obtained by detecting reflected reference light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when reference light is irradiated to the living body tissues, a tissue condition image, which represents a tissue condition of the living body tissues and which has been compensated for a distance to the living body tissues, is formed with the operation processing, and the thus formed tissue condition image is displayed, the apparatus comprising:
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i) judgment means for making a judgment as to whether each of image areas embedded in the tissue condition image is an abnormal light affected area, which has been affected by light having an intensity equal to at least a specified value, or a normal light detection area, which has been formed with light having an intensity lower than the specified value, the judgment being made in accordance with at least one image, which is among the first fluorescence image, the second fluorescence image, and the reflected reference light image, and ii) abnormal light affected area displaying means for receiving an output from the judgment means and displaying the abnormal light affected area in a form different from the normal light detection area in accordance with the output received from the judgment means. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of acquiring an endoscope image, comprising the steps of:
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i) irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the reflection image is acquired by performing low-pass filtering processing on the image, which has been obtained from the detection of the reflected light.
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17. A method of acquiring an endoscope image, comprising the steps of:
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i) irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the reflection image is acquired by;
performing differentiation filtering processing on the image, which has been obtained from the detection of the reflected light, in order to specify a regular reflection image area, which is embedded in the image having been obtained from the detection of the reflected light and is affected by regularly reflected light of the light having been irradiated to the living body tissues, and substituting an image value within the regular reflection image area by a corrected value, which is determined in accordance with image values at an area surrounding the regular reflection image area.
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18. A method of acquiring an endoscope image, comprising the steps of:
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i) irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the irradiation of the light is performed from two different positions and with different timings, the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from one of the two different positions to the living body tissues, and the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from the other position to the living body tissues, are detected respectively as two images, and the reflection image is acquired by;
calculating a difference between the two detected images in order to specify regular reflection image areas, which are embedded respectively in the two detected images and are affected by regularly reflected light of the light having been irradiated to the living body tissues, substituting an image value within each of the regular reflection image areas, which are embedded respectively in the two detected images, by a corrected value, which is determined in accordance with image values at an area surrounding the corresponding regular reflection image area, and adding two images, which have been obtained from the substitution, to each other.
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19. A method of acquiring an endoscope image, comprising the steps of:
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i) irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the irradiation of the light is performed from two different positions and with different timings, the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from one of the two different positions to the living body tissues, and the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from the other position to the living body tissues, are detected respectively as two images, and the reflection image is acquired by;
performing low-pass filtering processing on each of the two detected images, and adding two images, which have been obtained from the low-pass filtering processing, to each other.
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20. An apparatus for acquiring an endoscope image, comprising:
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i) irradiation means for irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detection means for detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) image acquiring means for acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the image acquiring means acquires the reflection image by performing low-pass filtering processing on the image, which has been obtained from the detection of the reflected light. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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23. An apparatus for acquiring an endoscope image, comprising:
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i) irradiation means for irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detection means for detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) image acquiring means for acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the image acquiring means acquires the reflection image by;
performing differentiation filtering processing on the image, which has been obtained from the detection of the reflected light, in order to specify a regular reflection image area, which is embedded in the image having been obtained from the detection of the reflected light and is affected by regularly reflected light of the light having been irradiated to the living body tissues, and substituting an image value within the regular reflection image area by a corrected value, which is determined in accordance with image values at an area surrounding the regular reflection image area. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25)
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26. An apparatus for acquiring an endoscope image, comprising:
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i) irradiation means for irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detection means for detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) image acquiring means for acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the irradiation means irradiates the light from two different positions and with different timings to the living body tissues, the detection means detects the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from one of the two different positions to the living body tissues, and the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from the other position to the living body tissues, respectively as two images, and the image acquiring means acquires the reflection image by;
calculating a difference between the two detected images in order to specify regular reflection image areas, which are embedded respectively in the two detected images and are affected by regularly reflected light of the light having been irradiated to the living body tissues, substituting an image value within each of the regular reflection image areas, which are embedded respectively in the two detected images, by a corrected value, which is determined in accordance with image values at an area surrounding the corresponding regular reflection image area, and adding two images, which have been obtained from the substitution, to each other.
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27. An apparatus for acquiring an endoscope image, comprising:
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i) irradiation means for irradiating light to living body tissues, ii) detection means for detecting reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated to the living body tissues, as an image, and iii) image acquiring means for acquiring a reflection image from the image, which has been obtained by detecting the reflected light, wherein the irradiation means irradiates the light from two different positions and with different timings to the living body tissues, the detection means detects the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from one of the two different positions to the living body tissues, and the reflected light, which has been reflected from the living body tissues when the light is irradiated from the other position to the living body tissues, respectively as two images, and the image acquiring means acquires the reflection image by;
performing low-pass filtering processing on each of the two detected images, and adding two images, which have been obtained from the low-pass filtering processing, to each other.
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Specification