Visible and infrared imaging apparatus with movement detecting circuits for affecting freeze and noise reducing operations

A field sequential image pickup apparatus comprising:

• a light source device including a color disk provided with filters for visible light and a filter for infrared light so as to sequentially output visible light and infrared light by a rotating operation, and a detection sensor for detecting a rotation of said color disk;
• a solid-state image sensor for picking up an image of a body cavity as an object of observation at the time of projection of said visible light and said infrared light;
• a gate pulse generating circuit for generating gate pulses for extracting visible picture signals and infrared picture signals on the basis of outputs of said detection sensor;
• a signal separation circuit for separating said visible picture signals and said infrared picture signals from outputs of said solid-state image sensor on the basis of said gate pulses output from said gate pulse generating circuit;
• a movement detection circuit for detecting a movement of said object of observation from said visible picture signals output from said signal separation circuit;
• a movement detection circuit for detecting a movement of said object of observation from said infrared picture signals output from said signal separation circuit every turn of said color disk;
• a freeze operation circuit for inhibiting a freeze operation with respect to said visible picture signals if a movement of said object is detected by said movement detecting circuit for said visible picture signals, while executing said freeze operation if no movement is detected, when a freeze command is issued;
• a noise reducing circuit for suppressing a noise reducing operation for said infrared picture signals;
• and a freeze operation circuit for executing a freeze operation with respect to said infrared picture signals and which suppresses said noise reducing operation when movement of said object is detected in accordance with the quantity of movement by the movement detection circuit for said infrared picture signals, and which fully executes said noise reducing operation when no movement is detected.