Endoscope system using normal light and fluorescence

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source for generating an illumination light having two different wavelength bands and an excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• an endoscope comprising
• a light guide unit for guiding said illumination light and excitation light, and
• an image capturing unit for capturing two reflected light images made by the reflected light when said illumination light is guided by said light guide unit, irradiated onto a biological tissue and is reflected, and fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• and
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images made and fluorescent image, creating a processed image, and outputting it to a display device;
• wherein when the processed image is distributed on spatial coordinates where three axes are the intensities of the two different reflected lights and the fluorescence from the biological tissue, the wavelengths of said reflected lights and the fluorescence are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates, and
• wherein said image processor comprises a unit for inputting three signals of said fluorescent image and said two reflected light images, and an axial conversion unit for operating said signals and converting them into signals comprised of three color components so that luminance and/or hue differ between a normal tissue and a pathologically affected tissue, and the image of the pathologically affected tissue enters within a specific range of hue.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source comprising a unit for generating illumination light having two different wavelength bands and excitation light for exciting fluorescence as a fluorescent image mode including fluorescent information, and a unit for sequentially illuminating red, green and blue light as a normal-light image mode by white light;
• at least one image capturing unit for capturing reflected light images by said illumination light, fluorescent image by fluorescence excited by said excitation light, and normal-light images by the red, green and blue light, using the light output from said light source to the biological tissue;
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and fluorescent image or said normal-light images by red, green and blue light, and creating a processed image;
• and
• a display unit for displaying images processed by said image processor;
• wherein when the processed image is distributed on spatial coordinates where three axes are the intensities of the two different reflected lights and the fluorescence from the biological tissue, the wavelengths of said reflected lights and the fluorescence are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates, and
• wherein said image processor comprises an input unit for inputting the three signals of said two reflected light images and the fluorescent image or said normal-light images by red, green and blue light, and an axial conversion unit for operating signals of said fluorescent image and said two reflected light images, and converting them into three color component signals in the fluorescent image mode so that luminance and/or hue differ between a normal tissue and a pathologically affected tissue, and the image of the pathologically affected tissue enter within a specific range of hue, and for outputting signals of said normal-light images by red, green and blue light as three color component signals as is in the normal-light image mode.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source comprising a unit for generating illumination light having two different wavelength bands and excitation light for exciting fluorescence as a fluorescent image mode including fluorescent information, and a unit for sequentially illuminating red, green and blue light as a normal-light image mode by white light;
• at least one image capturing unit for capturing reflected light images made by the said illumination light, fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light and normal-light images by the red, green and blue light, using the light output from said light source to the biological tissue;
• and
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and fluorescent image or said normal-light images by the red, green and blue light, creating processed images, and outputting them to a display unit,
• wherein when the processed images are distributed on spatial coordinates where three axes are the intensities of the two different reflected lights and the fluorescence from the biological tissue, the wavelengths of said reflected lights and the fluorescence are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates, and
• wherein said image processor comprises an input unit for inputting the three signals of said two reflected light images and the fluorescent image or said normal-light images by red, green and blue light, and an axial conversion unit for operating the signals of said fluorescent images and said two reflected light images and converting them into three color component signals in the fluorescent image mode so that luminance and/or hue differ between a normal tissue an a pathologically affected tissue, and the images of the pathologically affected tissue enter within a specific range of hue, and for outputting the signals of said normal-light images by red, green and blue light as three color component signals as is in the normal-light image mode.

An image processor connectable between an image generation unit and a display unit in an endoscope system that comprises:

• a light source further comprising a unit for illuminating at least excitation light for exciting fluorescence as a fluorescent image mode including fluorescent information, and a unit for sequentially illuminating red, green and blue light as a normal-light image mode by white light;
• at least one image capturing unit for capturing a fluorescent image by fluorescence excited by said excitation light and normal-light images by red, green and blue light for a biological tissue;
• said image generation unit for processing said fluorescent images or said normal-light images by red, green and blue light and creating images;
• and
• a display unit for displaying images processed by said image generation unit;
• wherein said image processor comprises a unit that inputs at least the fluorescent signals, operates at least the fluorescent image signals, and axially converts the fluorescent signals into signals comprised of three color components in said fluorescent image mode.

An image processor connectable between an image generation unit and a display unit in an endoscope system that comprises:

• a light source further comprising a unit for illuminating at least excitation light for exciting fluorescence as a fluorescent image mode including fluorescent information, and a unit for sequentially illuminating red, green and blue light as a normal-light image mode by white light;
• at least one image capturing unit for capturing a fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light and normal-light images made by the red, green and blue light for a biological tissue;
• and
• said image generation unit for processing said fluorescent image or said normal-light images made by the red, green and blue light, creating images and outputting them to said display unit;
• wherein said image processor comprises a unit that inputs at least the fluorescent image signal, operates at least fluorescent image signal, and axially converts the fluorescent image signal into a signal comprised of three color components in said fluorescent image mode.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source for generating illumination light having two different wavelength bands and excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• a light guide unit for guiding said illumination light and excitation light;
• an image capturing unit for capturing two reflected light images made by the reflected light when said illumination light is irradiated onto a biological tissue via said light guide unit and is reflected, and a fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and fluorescent image and creating a processed image;
• and
• a display unit for displaying said processed image,
• wherein when the processed image is plotted on spatial coordinates where three axes are the intensities of the two different reflected lights and fluorescence from the biological tissue, the wavelengths of said reflected lights and the fluorescence are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates, and
• wherein the processed image which was processed by said image processor is displayed after said reflected lights and fluorescence are allocated to specific color signals such that hue differs between the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue, and the images of the pathologically affected tissue enter within substantially one specific hue.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source unit for generating an illumination light having two different wavelength bands and an excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• an endoscope having:
• a light guide unit for guiding said illumination light and excitation light;
• and
• an image capturing unit for capturing two reflected light images made by the reflected light when said illumination light is irradiated onto a biological tissue via said light guide unit and is reflected, and fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• and
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and fluorescent image, creating a processed image, and outputting it to an image display unit;
• wherein when the processed image is plotted on spatial coordinates where three axes are the intensities of the two different reflected lights and fluorescence from the biological tissue, the wavelengths of said reflected lights and the fluorescence are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates;
• and
• wherein the processed image which was processed by said image processor is displayed after said reflected lights and fluorescence are allocated to specific color signals such that hue differs between the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue, and the image of the pathologically affected tissue enters within substantially one specific hue.

An endoscope, comprising:

• a light source for generating illumination light having two different wavelength bands and excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• an image capturing unit for capturing two reflected light images made by the reflected light when said illumination light is irradiated onto a biological tissue and is reflected, two reflected images made by the reflected light when said illumination light is reflected onto said biological tissue and is reflected, and a fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and a fluorescent image and creating a processed images;
• and
• a display unit for displaying said processed image,
• wherein when the processed image is plotted on spatial coordinates where three axes are the intensities of the two different reflected lights and fluorescence from the biological tissue, the wavelengths of said reflected lights and the fluorescence are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates;
• and
• wherein the processed image which was processed by said processor is displayed after said reflected lights and fluorescence are allocated to specific color signals such that the image of pathologically affected tissue extends over a plurality of hues.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source where two band filters for passing two different wavelength bands and an excitation filter for passing an excitation light are switchably installed so as to sequentially illuminate the illumination light having said two different wavelength bands and said excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• an image capturing unit which houses a fluorescence detection filter for shielding said excitation light and transmitting said fluorescence and reflected lights so as to capture two reflected light images when said two illumination lights are irradiated onto a biological tissue and are reflected, and a fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and a fluorescent image and creating a processed image;
• and
• a display unit for displaying said processed image;
• wherein for the wavelength bands of said two band filters and fluorescence detection filter, when the processed image is plotted on spatial coordinates where three axes are the reflected lights by two different band filters from the biological tissue and a fluorescence by the fluorescent detection filter, the wavelengths of said band filters and the fluorescent detection filter are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes spatial coordinates.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source where two band filters for passing two different wavelength bands and an excitation filter for passing an excitation light are switchably installed so as to sequentially illuminate the illumination light having said two different wavelength bands and said excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• an image capturing unit which houses a fluorescence detection filter for shielding excitation light and transmitting said fluorescence and reflected lights so as to capture two reflected light images when said two illumination lights are irradiated onto a biological tissue and are reflected and a fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• and
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and fluorescent images, creating processed images and outputting them to the image display unit,
• wherein for the wavelength bands of said two band filters and fluorescence detection filter, when the processed image was plotted on spatial coordinates where three axes are the reflected lights by two different band filters from the biological tissue and a fluorescence by the fluorescence detection filter, the wavelengths of said band filters and the fluorescence detection filter are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source where two band filters for passing two different wavelength bands and an excitation filter for passing an excitation light are switchably installed so as to sequentially illuminate the illumination light having said two different wavelength bands and said excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• an image capturing unit which houses a fluorescence detection filter for shielding said excitation light and transmitting said fluorescence and reflected lights so as to capture two reflected light images when said two illumination lights are irradiated onto a biological tissue and are reflected, and a fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and a fluorescent image, and creating a processed image;
• and
• a display unit for displaying said processed image,
• wherein for the wavelength bands of said two band filters and fluorescence detection filter, when the processed images are plotted on spatial coordinates where three axes are the reflected lights by the two different band filters from the biological tissue and a fluorescence by the fluorescence detection filter, the wavelengths of said band filters and the fluorescence detection filter are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates, and said image processor includes a processor circuit for allocating said reflected lights and fluorescence to specific color signals so that hue differs between the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue, and the image of the pathologically affected tissue enters one specific hue.

An endoscope system, comprising:

• a light source where two band filters for passing two different wavelength bands and an excitation filter for passing an excitation light are switchably installed so as to sequentially illuminate the illumination light having said two different wavelength bands and said excitation light for exciting fluorescence;
• an image capturing unit which houses a fluorescence detection filter for shielding said excitation light and transmitting said fluorescence and reflected lights so as to capture two reflected light images when said two illumination lights are irradiated onto a biological tissue and are reflected, and a fluorescent image made by the fluorescence excited by said excitation light;
• and
• an image processor for processing said two reflected light images and a fluorescent image, creating a processed image, and outputting it to an image display unit,
• wherein for the wavelength bands of said two band filters and fluorescence detection filter, when the processed image is plotted on spatial coordinates where three axes are the reflected lights by the two different band filters from the biological tissue and a fluorescence by the fluorescence detection filter, the wavelengths of the band filters and the fluorescence detection filter are selected such that the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue are separated on the three axes-spatial coordinates, and
• wherein said image processor includes a processing circuit for allocating said reflected lights and fluorescence to specific color signals so that hue differs between the normal tissue and the pathologically affected tissue, and the image of the pathologically affected tissue enters one specific hue.

An endoscope system which displays switching normal-light images by white light (normal-light image mode) and fluorescent images including fluorescent information (fluorescent image mode), comprising:

• an endoscope which houses a monochrome image pickup device for capturing the images of reflected light and fluorescence from the body cavity, an excitation light cut filter which is installed in front of said image pickup device for shielding said excitation light, and an endoscope ID which includes information on the type of the endoscope;
• and
• a light source unit further comprising a first switching filter which includes a filter which irradiates light including excitation light for the fluorescent image mode and a filter for generating continuous light of red, green and blue (RGB) for the normal-light image mode, which are switched according to the switching of the fluorescent image mode and the normal-light image mode, and a second switching filter, which includes at least one limiting filter for limiting a part of the wavelengths of the excitation light of said first switching filter, and can switch said limiting filters according to said endoscope ID or observation state in the fluorescence mode,
• wherein said excitation light cut filter shields the excitation light generated by said first and second filters.