Methods and systems for adaptive imaging for low light signal enhancement in medical visualization

An adaptive imaging system for generating enhanced low-intensity light video of an object for medical visualization, comprising:

• an image acquisition assembly configured to acquire a sequence of low light video frames depicting the object;
• one or more processors;
• memory;
• and
• one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for:
• assessing relative movement between the image acquisition assembly and the object based on reference video frames;
• adjusting a level of image processing of the low light video frames based at least in part on the relative movement between the image acquisition assembly and the object;
• and
• generating a characteristic low light video output from a quantity of the low light video frames, wherein the quantity of the low light video frames is based on the adjusted level of image processing of the low light video frames,
• wherein adjusting the level of image processing of the low light video frames comprises adjusting the quantity of low light video frames from which the characteristic low light video output is generated,
• wherein adjusting the quantity of low light video frames comprises setting the quantity of low light video frames to a first predetermined value if the relative movement between the image acquisition assembly and the object is below a first motion threshold,
• wherein setting the quantity of low light video frames to the first predetermined value comprises gradually increasing or decreasing the quantity of low light video frames to the first predetermined value over a series of frames of the characteristic low light video output, and
• wherein adjusting the quantity of low light video frames comprises setting the quantity of low light video frames to a second predetermined value if the relative movement between the image acquisition assembly and the object is above the first motion threshold, the second predetermined value being lower than the first predetermined value.