Endoscope apparatus

• US 20060198551A1
• Filed: 03/02/2006
• Published: 09/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujinon Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujinon Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Abe, Kazunori, Takeuchi, Shinji, Ayame, Daisuke
• Granted Patent: US 7,944,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/000094 extracting biological structures
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/045 Control thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/05 characterised by the image sensor, e.g. camera, being in the distal end portion
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0084 for introduction into the body, e.g. by catheters A61B5/1459 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/409 Edge or detail enhancement; Noise or error suppression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/60 Colour correction or control H04N1/54 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/68 for controlling the amplitude of colour signals, e.g. automatic chroma control circuits H04N9/71, H04N9/73 take precedence; camera processing pipelines for controlling the colour saturation of colour signals H04N23/86
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/69 for modifying the colour signals by gamma correction controlling camera response for colour signals H04N23/83

Abstract

An endoscope apparatus comprises: an endoscope comprising an imaging device that forms a color image signal of a body to be observed; a storage portion that stores matrix data for forming a spectral image based on the color image signal; a spectral image-forming circuit that conducts matrix calculation based on the color image signal by using the matrix data of the storage portion and forms at least one spectral image signal each of which corresponds to an arbitrarily selected wavelength range; and an amplifier circuit that amplifies said at least one spectral image signal formed by the spectral image-forming circuit.

Claims

1. An endoscope apparatus comprising:

an endoscope comprising an imaging device that forms a color image signal of a body to be observed;

a storage portion that stores matrix data for forming a spectral image based on the color image signal;

a spectral image-forming circuit that conducts matrix calculation based on the color image signal by using the matrix data of the storage portion and forms at least one spectral image signal each of which corresponds to an arbitrarily selected wavelength range; and

an amplifier circuit that amplifies said at least one spectral image signal formed by the spectral image-forming circuit.

2. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said at least one spectral image signal comprises a plurality of spectral image signals corresponding to a plurality of wavelength ranges, and

the amplifier circuit amplifies said plurality of image signals at individual different gains.

3. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the color image signal from the imaging device is selectably:

(i) passed through the spectral image-forming circuit to form said at least one spectral image signal;

or

(ii) not passed through the spectral image-forming circuit to form an ordinary color image signal for an ordinary display, and

wherein the endoscope apparatus further comprises a noise removal circuit for removing noise of the ordinary color image signal or said at least one spectral image signal, and

the noise removal circuit conducts noise processing for said at least one spectral image signal at a first noise removal rate and conducts noise processing for the ordinary color image signal at a second noise removal rate, the first noise removal rate being higher than the second noise removal rate.

4. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the noise removal circuit increases the first noise removal rate as a gain of the amplifier circuit increases, and the noise removal circuit decreases the first noise removal rate as a gain of the amplifier circuit decreases.

5. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the color image signal input to the spectral image-forming circuit is:

(i) obtained by releasing gamma correction in a signal processing circuit at a front stage of the spectral image-forming circuit;

or

(ii) obtained via a reverse gamma-correction processing circuit, and

wherein the spectral image-forming circuit forms said at least one spectral image signal based on the color image signal to which no gamma correction is given, and then gamma correction is provided to said at least one spectral image signal.