Apparatuses, systems, and methods for managing auto-exposure of image frames depicting signal content against a darkened background

A system comprising:

• a fluorescence illumination source configured to illuminate tissue within a body undergoing a fluorescence-guided medical procedure, wherein a portion of the tissue includes a fluorescence imaging agent that fluoresces when illuminated by the fluorescence illumination source;
• an image capture device configured to capture an image frame sequence that includes an image frame depicting a view of the body as the tissue is illuminated by the fluorescence illumination source;
• and
• one or more processors configured to:
• identify, within the image frame captured by the image capture device, a signal region of the image frame associated with the portion of the tissue that includes the fluorescence imaging agent and a background region of the image frame associated with a portion of the tissue that does not include the fluorescence imaging agent;
• determine one or more of a signal auto-exposure value of the signal region or a background auto-exposure value of the background region;
• determine, based on one or more of the signal auto-exposure value or the background auto-exposure value, a frame auto-exposure value;
• and
• adjust, based on the frame auto-exposure value, one or more auto-exposure parameters used by the image capture device or the fluorescence illumination source to capture an additional image frame of the image frame sequence.

A method comprising:

• identifying, by a computing device and within an image frame captured by an image capture system, a signal region of the image frame;
• determining, by the computing device, a signal auto-exposure value of the signal region;
• determining, by the computing device and based on the signal auto-exposure value, a frame auto-exposure value;
• and
• adjusting, by the computing device and based on the frame auto-exposure value, one or more auto-exposure parameters used by the image capture system to capture an additional image frame.