Method and apparatus for reducing the inherently dark grid pattern from the video display of images from fiber optic bundles
First Claim
1. In combination with an endoscope and a video display, said video display having an array of pixels for displaying purposes, said endoscope including an objective lens at its distal end and a fiber optic bundle for transmitting an image to a CCD camera at it proximal end;
- said fiber optic bundle comprising a substantial number of optical fibers each with distal and proximal ends, the ends of said fibers forming an array which is identical at both of said ends of said bundle, whereby to forward an image from said lens to said camera, each said fiber consisting of a central light-transmitting core and a peripheral cladding, said fibers being clustered so as to form voids between groups of contacting fibers, said claddings and said voids being non-transmissive of light so as to form a visible dark grid encompassing said light-transmissive cores;
said camera having arrays of pixels at photo sites on said camera respective to pixels on said display, the improvement comprising;
grid reduction means receiving pixel signals from said camera and generating respective enhanced signals for said display, said grid reduction means comprising circuitry which adjusts the color and intensity of the signal generated by the CCD respective to pixels in said grid, thereby to reduce the prominence of said grid.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for improving an image received from a endoscope having a flexible fiber optic bundle that produces an interstitial grid overlay due to the dead space between each fiber pixel. The interstitial grid pattern in the image, is substantially eliminated by processing the image through a linear digital filter to attenuate the first-order spatial frequency components that contribute most to the interstitial pattern. The filter employs relatively small convolution kernels that are optimized for specific fiber spacing. The image is then processed through the linear digital filter by convolving the respective pixels in the image by the derived coefficients. The image is improved and the grid pattern may also be reduced by a dilation process which involves processing the image through a dilation algorithm to "grow" the bright center of each fiber pixel in the image so that the effect of the grid pattern is reduced. The process involves filling in the dark area of the grid space with the color and intensity from the nearest fiber center to obtain an equivalent image representation. The dilation process uses a non-linear image processing algorithm to replace each pixel with the maximum pixel brightness in its immediate neighborhood depending on the selection of a kernel. The dilation kernel is selected by determining the number of detector (CCD) pixels that fit in a space between the fiber cores and then selecting a matrix size and kernel pattern.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. In combination with an endoscope and a video display, said video display having an array of pixels for displaying purposes, said endoscope including an objective lens at its distal end and a fiber optic bundle for transmitting an image to a CCD camera at it proximal end;
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said fiber optic bundle comprising a substantial number of optical fibers each with distal and proximal ends, the ends of said fibers forming an array which is identical at both of said ends of said bundle, whereby to forward an image from said lens to said camera, each said fiber consisting of a central light-transmitting core and a peripheral cladding, said fibers being clustered so as to form voids between groups of contacting fibers, said claddings and said voids being non-transmissive of light so as to form a visible dark grid encompassing said light-transmissive cores; said camera having arrays of pixels at photo sites on said camera respective to pixels on said display, the improvement comprising; grid reduction means receiving pixel signals from said camera and generating respective enhanced signals for said display, said grid reduction means comprising circuitry which adjusts the color and intensity of the signal generated by the CCD respective to pixels in said grid, thereby to reduce the prominence of said grid. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of improving an endoscope image received through a fiber optic bundle to remove said interstitial grid pattern comprising;
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converting said endoscope image to a digital image signal; processing said digital image signal to generate respective enhanced pixel signals; converting said processed digital signal image to a switchable color output signal; whereby said interstitial grid pattern is substantially removed. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification