ENDOSCOPE SYSTEM, PROCESSOR DEVICE, AND OPERATION METHOD OF ENDOSCOPE SYSTEM

• US 20160287061A1
• Filed: 02/16/2016
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: SHIGETA, Norimasa
• Application Number:
  US15/044,914
• Publication Number:
  US 20160287061A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/000094 extracting biological structures
• 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 5/14551 for measuring blood gases
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1459 invasive, e.g. introduced into the body by a catheter A61B5/1464 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/555 for picking-up images in sites, inaccessible due to their dimensions or hazardous conditions, e.g. endoscopes or borescopes

Abstract

There are provided an endoscope system, a processor device, and an operation method of an endoscope system that can calculate an accurate oxygen saturation by reducing artifacts. An endoscope system includes: an oxygen saturation correction unit that calculates the amount of change in oxygen saturation in the latest second period with respect to the oxygen saturation in the past first period and that maintains a value of the oxygen saturation in the second period in a case in which the amount of change is less than a threshold value and corrects the oxygen saturation in the second period to a value obtained as a result of setting the amount of change to the threshold value in a case in which the amount of change is equal to or greater than the threshold value; and an oxygen saturation image generation unit that generates an oxygen saturation image using the oxygen saturation in the second period.

Claims

1. An endoscope system, comprising:

an image signal acquisition unit that acquires a first period image signal by imaging an observation target, which is irradiated with illumination light, in a first period and that acquires a second period image signal by imaging the observation target in a second period after acquiring the first period image signal;

an oxygen saturation calculation unit that calculates an oxygen saturation of the observation target in the first period using the first period image signal and that calculates an oxygen saturation of the observation target in the second period using the second period image signal;

an oxygen saturation correction unit that calculates an amount of change in an oxygen saturation in the second period with respect to an oxygen saturation in the first period and that maintains a value of the oxygen saturation in the second period in a case in which the amount of change is less than a threshold value and corrects the oxygen saturation in the second period to a value obtained as a result of setting the amount of change to the threshold value in a case in which the amount of change is equal to or greater than the threshold value; and

an oxygen saturation image generation unit that generates an oxygen saturation image showing an oxygen saturation of the observation target using the oxygen saturation in the second period.

2. The endoscope system according to claim 1,

wherein the oxygen saturation correction unit sets the threshold value based on a distribution of the oxygen saturation in the first period.

3. The endoscope system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a multi-resolution processing unit that generates a plurality of multi-resolution image signals having different resolutions by performing multi-resolution processing on the second period image signal; and

a combination processing unit that generates a second period composite image signal by applying a weighting to each of the plurality of multi-resolution image signals,

wherein the oxygen saturation calculation unit calculates the oxygen saturation in the second period using the second period composite image signal.

4. The endoscope system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a multi-resolution processing unit that generates a plurality of multi-resolution image signals having different resolutions by performing multi-resolution processing on the second period image signal; and

a combination processing unit that generates a second period composite image signal by applying a weighting to each of the plurality of multi-resolution image signals,

wherein the oxygen saturation calculation unit calculates the oxygen saturation in the second period using the second period composite image signal.

5. The endoscope system according to claim 3,

wherein the second period image signal includes a first group image signal acquired at a first timing of the second period and a second group image signal acquired at a second timing, which is different from the first timing, of the second period, and

the combination processing unit compares a plurality of multi-resolution image signals generated from the first group image signal with a plurality of multi-resolution image signals generated from the second group image signal for each resolution, and performs combination processing by setting a larger weighting as the multi-resolution image signals having resolutions in which a difference between the multi-resolution image signal generated from the first group image signal and the multi-resolution image signal generated from the second group image signal is smaller.

6. The endoscope system according to claim 4,

wherein the second period image signal includes a first group image signal acquired at a first timing of the second period and a second group image signal acquired at a second timing, which is different from the first timing, of the second period, and

the combination processing unit compares a plurality of multi-resolution image signals generated from the first group image signal with a plurality of multi-resolution image signals generated from the second group image signal for each resolution, and performs combination processing by setting a larger weighting as the multi-resolution image signals having resolutions in which a difference between the multi-resolution image signal generated from the first group image signal and the multi-resolution image signal generated from the second group image signal is smaller.

7. The endoscope system according to claim 5,

wherein each of the first and second group image signals includes a green image signal corresponding to a green wavelength band and a red image signal corresponding to a red wavelength band, and

the combination processing unit compares ratios between the green image signal and the red image signal after multi-resolution processing for each resolution, and sets the weighting.

8. The endoscope system according to claim 6,

wherein each of the first and second group image signals includes a green image signal corresponding to a green wavelength band and a red image signal corresponding to a red wavelength band, and

the combination processing unit compares ratios between the green image signal and the red image signal after multi-resolution processing for each resolution, and sets the weighting.

9. The endoscope system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a multi-resolution processing unit that generates a plurality of multi-resolution image signals having different resolutions by performing multi-resolution processing on the second period image signal,

wherein the oxygen saturation calculation unit calculates the oxygen saturation in the second period using the multi-resolution image signal having a specific resolution of the plurality of multi-resolution image signals.

10. The endoscope system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a multi-resolution processing unit that generates a plurality of multi-resolution image signals having different resolutions by performing multi-resolution processing on the second period image signal,

wherein the oxygen saturation calculation unit calculates the oxygen saturation in the second period using the multi-resolution image signal having a specific resolution of the plurality of multi-resolution image signals.

11. The endoscope system according to claim 9,

wherein the second period image signal includes a first group image signal acquired at a first timing of the second period and a second group image signal acquired at a second timing, which is different from the first timing, of the second period, and

the oxygen saturation calculation unit calculates the oxygen saturation in the second period using the multi-resolution image signals in which a difference between the multi-resolution image signal generated from the first group image signal and the multi-resolution image signal generated from the second group image signal is the smallest and resolutions are the highest.

12. The endoscope system according to claim 10,

wherein the second period image signal includes a first group image signal acquired at a first timing of the second period and a second group image signal acquired at a second timing, which is different from the first timing, of the second period, and

the oxygen saturation calculation unit calculates the oxygen saturation in the second period using the multi-resolution image signals in which a difference between the multi-resolution image signal generated from the first group image signal and the multi-resolution image signal generated from the second group image signal is the smallest and resolutions are the highest.

13. The endoscope system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an oxygen saturation storage unit that stores a plurality of oxygen saturations including the oxygen saturation in the first period and calculated before the second period; and

a noise reduction unit that reduces noise of the oxygen saturation in the second period using a plurality of oxygen saturations stored in the oxygen saturation storage unit.

14. The endoscope system according to claim 2, further comprising:

an oxygen saturation storage unit that stores a plurality of oxygen saturations including the oxygen saturation in the first period and calculated before the second period; and

a noise reduction unit that reduces noise of the oxygen saturation in the second period using a plurality of oxygen saturations stored in the oxygen saturation storage unit.

15. The endoscope system according to claim 3, further comprising:

an oxygen saturation storage unit that stores a plurality of oxygen saturations including the oxygen saturation in the first period and calculated before the second period; and

a noise reduction unit that reduces noise of the oxygen saturation in the second period using a plurality of oxygen saturations stored in the oxygen saturation storage unit.

16. The endoscope system according to claim 4, further comprising:

an oxygen saturation storage unit that stores a plurality of oxygen saturations including the oxygen saturation in the first period and calculated before the second period; and

a noise reduction unit that reduces noise of the oxygen saturation in the second period using a plurality of oxygen saturations stored in the oxygen saturation storage unit.

17. The endoscope system according to claim 13, further comprising:

a movement detection unit that detects a relative movement between the observation target and an endoscope,

wherein the noise reduction unit increases the number of oxygen saturations used for reduction of the noise as the movement detected by the movement detection unit increases.

18. The endoscope system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a position shift correction unit that corrects a position shift between the oxygen saturation in the second period and the oxygen saturation in the first period.

20. An operation method of the endoscope system using the endoscope system according to claim 1, comprising:

a step of causing an image signal acquisition unit to acquire a first period image signal by imaging an observation target, which is irradiated with illumination light, in a first period and to acquire a second period image signal by imaging the observation target in a second period after acquiring the first period image signal;

a step of causing an oxygen saturation calculation unit to calculate an oxygen saturation of the observation target in the first period using the first period image signal and to calculate an oxygen saturation of the observation target in the second period using the second period image signal;

a step of causing an oxygen saturation correction unit to calculate an amount of change in an oxygen saturation in the second period with respect to an oxygen saturation in the first period and to maintain a value of the oxygen saturation in the second period in a case in which the amount of change is less than a threshold value and correct the oxygen saturation in the second period to a value obtained as a result of setting the amount of change to the threshold value in a case in which the amount of change is equal to or greater than the threshold value; and

a step of causing an oxygen saturation image generation unit to generate an oxygen saturation image showing an oxygen saturation of the observation target using the oxygen saturation in the second period.

19. A processor device, comprising:

an image signal acquisition unit that acquires a first period image signal by imaging an observation target, which is irradiated with illumination light, in a first period and that acquires a second period image signal by imaging the observation target in a second period after acquiring the first period image signal;

an oxygen saturation calculation unit that calculates an oxygen saturation of the observation target in the first period using the first period image signal and that calculates an oxygen saturation of the observation target in the second period using the second period image signal;

an oxygen saturation correction unit that calculates an amount of change in an oxygen saturation in the second period with respect to an oxygen saturation in the first period and that maintains a value of the oxygen saturation in the second period in a case in which the amount of change is less than a threshold value and corrects the oxygen saturation in the second period to a value obtained as a result of setting the amount of change to the threshold value in a case in which the amount of change is equal to or greater than the threshold value; and

an oxygen saturation image generation unit that generates an oxygen saturation image showing an oxygen saturation of the observation target using the oxygen saturation in the second period.