ELECTRONIC ENDOSCOPE APPARATUS

• US 20080079803A1
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: SEKIGUCHI, Tadashi
• Granted Patent: US 8,125,514 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/45
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0005 combining images e.g. side-by-side, superimposed or tiled
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0638 providing two or more wavelengths
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/0646 with illumination filters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0075 by spectroscopy, i.e. measuring spectra, e.g. Raman spectroscopy, infrared absorption spectroscopy A61B5/0071 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0086 using infrared radiation

Abstract

An electronic endoscope apparatus is provided and includes: a light source that illuminates a subject with white light; a color imaging device that takes an image of the subject illuminated with white light; and a spectral-image forming circuit that operates RGB three color image signals based on an output from the color imaging device and a matrix data to generate an spectral image signal representative of a spectral image in a color at a designated wavelength. The spectral-image forming circuit is adapted to generate spectral image signals representative of spectral images in respective colors at least three wavelengths different from one another.

Claims

1. An electronic endoscope apparatus comprising:

a light source that illuminates a subject with white light;

a color imaging device that takes an image of the subject illuminated with white light; and

a spectral-image forming circuit that operates RGB three color image signals based on an output from the color imaging device and a matrix data to generate an spectral image signal representative of a spectral image in a color at a designated wavelength, wherein the spectral-image forming circuit is adapted to generate spectral image signals representative of spectral images in respective colors at least three wavelengths different from one another.

2. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage section that stores the matrix data.

3. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spectral-image forming circuit is adapted to be capable of generating a spectral-image signal representative of a spectral image in a fixed colors so as to selectively output the signal representative of the spectral image in the fixed color and the spectral image signal representative of the spectral image in the color of the designated wavelength.

4. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the spectral-image forming circuit is adapted to be capable of generating a spectral-image signal representative of a spectral image in a fixed colors so as to selectively output the signal representative of the spectral image in the fixed color and the spectral image signal representative of the spectral image in the color of the designated wavelength.

5. The electronic endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least three wavelengths includes wavelengths at red, green and blue portions of light.