Image rotation using software for endoscopic applications

An endoscopic system comprising:

• an endoscope unit comprising:
• a hand-piece;
• a lumen comprising a distal tip;
• an image sensor disposed within the lumen for providing visualization of an area, wherein the image sensor is located near the distal tip of the lumen;
• wherein said image sensor incorporates a two dimensional array of pixels capable of detecting electromagnetic radiation;
• wherein the lumen is rotatable about an axis of the endoscope and with respect to the hand-piece;
• and
• an image signal processing pipeline performs rotation transformations upon images captured by the image sensor, wherein the image signal processing pipeline is configured to rotate the images to maintain a constant image horizon for a user on a display.

A method of rotating an image in an endoscopic application comprising:

• providing an endoscope unit comprising:
• a hand-piece;
• a lumen comprising a distal tip;
• an image sensor disposed within the lumen for providing visualization of an area, wherein the image sensor is located near the distal tip of the lumen;
• wherein said image sensor incorporates a two dimensional array of pixels capable of detecting electromagnetic radiation;
• detecting an angle of rotation of the hand-piece relative to the lumen using an angle sensor, wherein the lumen is rotatable about an axis of the endoscope and with respect to the hand-piece;
• and
• performing image rotation transformations upon images captured by the image sensor using an image signal processing pipeline that is configured to rotate the images to maintain a constant image horizon for a user on a display.